2012 CSHL Bacteria & Phages Conference

描述(申请人提供)：细菌和噬菌体分子遗传学会议，传统上在冷泉港举行，现在隔年在麦迪逊的威斯康星大学和冷泉港实验室举行，是展示原核生物分子遗传学新成果的中心论坛。大约有200-400人参加，代表世界各地的实验室，大多数人要么发表简短的演讲，要么张贴海报。它的广度使它成为这个科学专业化时代信息交流的重要焦点。涵盖的主题包括细菌复制、重组、修复、转座、转录、基因表达控制、翻译、信号、热休克、蛋白质折叠和分泌、应激反应、细胞发育和分裂以及发病机制等基础工作。近年来，努力将基因组学和元基因组学、社会微生物学、分子生态学、结构生物学和系统分析等新兴领域纳入其中。对于许多研究生和博士后研究员来说，这是他们第一次有机会在大型国际会议上发言。由于具有高度的互动性，会议为这些年轻科学家提供了一个与他们从文献中认识的资深科学家见面和交谈的重要机会。鉴于出席会议的学生人数众多，涉及的主题也很多样，每届会议都邀请知名和杰出的科学家主持。这加强了会议，因为每一位主席都作了简短的介绍，总结了将要讨论的领域的一些关键方面，并为会谈将处理的主要问题提供了一个概念框架。另一个好处是，在会议公告中公布明智选择的主席和会议议题，鼓励提交令人振奋的新领域的摘要，并鼓励更多的人出席。 与公共健康相关：从极端环境到人类肠道，地球上几乎所有的生态系统中都可以找到被称为细菌的单细胞微生物。人类进化出了强大的免疫力，与许多细菌生活在一起，确实在从奶酪制作到生物技术的过程中使用细菌，但在不利的条件下，细菌是许多重要传染病的罪魁祸首，如结核病、霍乱或梅毒。就像植物和动物都有病毒一样，细菌也可以被噬菌体感染，从而改变它们的新陈代谢和生化。几十年来，科学家一直使用噬菌体作为精致的遗传工具，以探索细菌分子机制的许多基本方面。这项工作帮助我们了解了细菌是如何控制它们的生命周期的，细胞是如何繁殖和分裂的，以及它们是如何在环境中生存和感知的。研究现在正在从单个细菌细胞如何发挥作用转向微生物群体如何协作和生存，以及这些群体如何适应环境的变化，在土壤、海底、动物或其他动物身上的不同环境中。 人类的主人。这次国际会议将为致力于相关主题的科学家提供一个论坛，分享他们的最新发现，并将该领域的领先专家聚集在一起。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages Conference, traditionally held at Cold Spring Harbor and now being held in alternate years at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, is a central forum for the presentation of new results in prokaryotic molecular genetics. On the order of 200-400 participants attend, representing laboratories throughout the world, and most present either short talks or posters. Its breadth makes it an important focus for the exchange of information in this era of scientific specialization. Topics covered include fundamental work on bacterial replication, recombination, repair, transposition, transcription, control of gene expression, translation, signaling, heat shock, protein folding and secretion, stress response, cell development and division, and pathogenesis. In recent years, efforts have been made to include emerging areas such as genomics and metagenomics, sociomicrobiology, molecular ecology, structural biology and systems analysis. For many graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, this is the first large, international meeting at which they have an opportunity to speak. Due to is highly interactive nature, the meeting provides an important opportunity for these young scientists to meet and talk to the senior scientists they know from the literature. In response to the large numbers of students who attend the meeting and the diversity of topics covered, established and distinguished scientists are invited to chair each session. This strengthens the meeting because each chairperson gives a short introduction in which he or she summarizes some of the key facets of the field to be covered and provides a conceptual framework for the major questions that the talks will address. As an additional benefit, publicizing the judiciously chosen chairpeople and session topics in announcements of the meeting encourages the submission of abstracts in exciting new areas and stimulates attendance by a larger constituency. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The unicellular microorganisms known as bacteria can be found in almost all ecosystems on the planet, from extreme environments to the human gut. Humans have evolved robust immunity to live alongside many bacteria, and indeed to use bacteria in processes from cheese-making to biotechnology, but under adverse conditions, bacteria are responsible for many important infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera or syphilis. Much as plants and animals have viruses, so bacteria can be infected by bacteriophages that alter their metabolism and biochemistry. Phages have been used by scientists for many decades as exquisite genetic tools to probe many fundamental aspects of the molecular machinery at work in bacteria. This work has helped us to understand how bacteria control their life cycle, how cells reproduce and divide, and how they survive in and sense their environment. Research is now shifting from how individual bacterial cells function to how colonies of microorganisms collaborate and survive, and how these colonies adapt to changes in their environment, in niches as varied as in the soil, under the sea, or in an animal or human host. This international conference will provide a forum for scientists working on related topics to share their latest discoveries and will bring together the leading experts in the field.