2009 Microbial Population

2009年戈登微生物种群生物学会议将涵盖微生物科学中的一系列问题。该会议以进化生物学为基础，采用高度综合的方法，将涵盖广泛的主题，包括：适应的动力学和遗传学、进化基因组学、蛋白质结构和功能的进化以及毒力的进化。这次会议吸引了来自不同领域的科学家，促进了生物学领域综合和思维广泛的研究人员之间的互动。因此，它提供了形成新的调查方法的理想场所，特别是在受益于进化生物学坚实基础的传染病生物学等领域。疾病的演变越来越被视为促进公共和个人健康、动物福利和农业综合企业的关键。目前爆发的猪流感是疾病与宿主之间不断进化的军备竞赛的一个例子，在这场竞赛中，病原体的进化不断超过宿主的免疫防御。虽然许多生物医学研究关注的是分子和临床水平上的疾病机制和进展，但很少有人注意了解毒力和传播率是如何进化的，以及它们是如何随着反应而进化的。会议将从总体上探讨微生物的进化，重点是毒力、传播率和疾病的进化，并将增进对新病原体的起源和传播的了解。

The 2009 Gordon Conference on Microbial Population Biology will cover a diverse range of issues in the microbial sciences. Founded in evolutionary biology and with a strongly integrative approach, the Conference will cover a broad range of topics including: the dynamics and genetics of adaptation, evolutionary genomics, the evolution of protein structure and function and the evolution of virulence. The Conference draws scientists from a diversity of fields, promoting interactions among integrative and broad-thinking researchers in biology. As such it provides the ideal venue within which to shape new ways of investigation, particularly in areas such as infectious disease biology that benefit from a firm foundation in evolutionary biology. The evolution of disease is increasingly seen as key to promoting public and individual health, animal welfare and agribusiness. The current out-break of swine flu is an example of an incessant evolutionary arms race between a disease and its hosts, one in which the pathogen continually out-evolves host immune defences. While much biomedical research is concerned with the mechanism and progression of disease at the molecular and clinical levels, little attention has been paid to understanding how virulence and transmission rates evolve, and what they evolve in response to. The Conference will explore microbial evolution in general, and emphasise the evolution of virulence, transmission rates and disease, and will increase understanding of the origins and spread of new pathogens.