Microbiology of the oceans, gut microbes and STIs to be discussed at SGM spring meeting 2010

Microbiology of the oceans, gut microbes and STIs are just some of the topics reflecting modern microbial science that will be covered next week at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting 2010.

Focusing on 'Systems, Mechanisms and Micro-organisms', the event takes place 29 March-1 April, at Edinburgh International Conference Centre. Over 150 top international experts deliver talks in an exciting mixture of symposia, workshops and keynote lectures to more than 1000 microbiologists from around the world.

Meeting highlights include a Prize Lecture by Nobel laureate in Medicine Professor Sir Paul Nurse on the molecular machinery driving the cell cycle. It should be a welcome return to Edinburgh for Sir Paul, who spent six years as a postdoctoral researcher in the Biology Department at the University of Edinburgh, during a period he once described as "pivotal for my entire research career." Sir Paul was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2001, along with Leland Hartwell and Tim Hunt, for their discoveries of 'key regulators of the cell cycle.'

Professor Glenn Gibson will be getting to the guts of microbes in health and disease in his Public Engagement Lecture at 18.30 on Wednesday 31 March. This free event, aimed at the public, will explain the identities of the microbes that live deep in our bowels, what they actually do and whether pre- and pro-biotics have any effect on them.

Other highlights include:

• An innovative stem cell therapy that could be a simple yet powerful strategy to treat HIV-1 infection

• Insight into the possibility of using bacteria to clean up plastic pollution in the oceans

• Discovery of how the bacterial 'immune system' works and how industrial microbes could be 'vaccinated' to keep them at peak performance

• Exploiting the properties of yeast to boost second generation biofuel production

• Why some bacterial strains that cause gonorrhoea may soon be classified as 'superbugs'

• The antimicrobial effect of everyday essential oils on bacteria

Source: Society for General Microbiology