Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity: ASM Microbe 2019 Session Highlights

Oct. 4, 2019

Purchase the ASM MICROBE 2019 - Ecology Evolution and Biodiversity Package for $449 and get these 4 scientific sessions plus 14 more! 

Evolution in the Wild

Owing to their large population sizes and capacity to rapidly reproduce, microorganisms have the potential to evolve at a fast rate. Over the past couple of decades, laboratory-scale experiments have demonstrated this, but what do we know about microbial evolution in the "wild"? In this cross-track session, speakers will describe diverse approaches from various systems (human hosts, soils and oceans) to understand the patterns and processes of evolution outside the confines of test tubes in the laboratory.

This session includes the following speakers:

Paul Turner, Yale University
Jennifer Lau, Indiana University
Martin Polz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nandita Garud, University of California Los Angeles

Watch: Evolution in the Wild
(Note: video playback requires the purchase of either the EEB or ASM Microbe 2019 packages.)

High Dimensional Analysis of Microbiome Dynamics

Microbiomes move through a high-dimensional phase space defined by the abundances of taxa, metabolites and genes. A major challenge is identifying stable states and state transitions coupled to function. To predict the progression of infectious disease, the response of environmental microbes to nutrient fluctuations and to identify possible trajectories and phenotypes, among other questions, novel, scalable, descriptions of microbial communities are required.

This session includes the following speakers:

Jeff Gore, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
W. K. Chang, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
James O’Dwyer, University of Illinois
D. Aliaga Goltsman, Stanford University
Karoline Faust, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
C. Y. Zhao, Georgia Institute of Technology

Watch: High Dimensional Analysis of Microbiome Dynamics
(Note: video playback requires the purchase of either the EEB or ASM Microbe 2019 packages.)

Harnessing Microbial Genetic Diversity to Understand Pathogenesis

Bacterial genome sequencing has become a routine approach in public health, to detect clusters of human infection cases and identify infection sources. Large scale genome sequencing of clinical and non-clinical isolates provides a considerable amount of data to untangle the genetic diversity of microbes, understand their evolution and pathogenicity. This session will present examples of major bacterial human pathogens for which breakthroughs have been made following such approaches.

This session includes the following speakers:

Marc Lecuit, Institut Pasteur
B. Pascoe, University of Bath
Sarah Fortune, Harvard University
K.M. Saund, University of Michigan
Francois-Xavier Weill, Institut Pasteur

Watch: Harnessing Microbial Genetic Diversity
(Note: video playback requires the purchase of either the EEB or ASM Microbe 2019 packages.)

Reference Standards for Microbiome Research: A Path to Higher Data Quality

The rapid and exponential increase in microbiome-related studies has led to a stochastic, non-standardized approach to microbiome research. As a consequence, there exists a large volume of data, gathered and interpreted in many different ways, which are not readily comparable. There needs to be a way to validate the methods and corresponding reference standards to ensure that the results obtained are comparable and reproducible. This symposium will address those challenges and offer solutions.

This session includes the following speakers:

Scott Jackson, National Institute of Standards and Technology
N. Shah, University of Maryland
Rita Colwell, University of Maryland
L. M. Rodriguez-R, Georgia Institute of Technology
Laura M. Sanchez, University of Illinois
S. M. Poutanen, University Health Network/Sinai Health System

Watch: Reference Standards for Microbiome Research
(Note: video playback requires the purchase of either the EEB or ASM Microbe 2019 packages.)

Author: ASM Communications

ASM Communications
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