2011 Microbial Population Biology Gordon Research Conference

2011微生物种群生物学戈登会议微生物种群生物学涵盖了多种当代问题。微生物种群生物学GRC以进化生物学和生态学为基础，采用强大的综合方法，吸引了来自进化生物学、生态学、计算生物学、分子生物学、医学微生物学和流行病学、细菌遗传学、种群遗传学以及最近的系统生物学和宏基因组学的研究人员。本申请寻求资助，以支持2011年微生物种群生物学GRC会议的演讲者和学生。本次会议的一个主要重点是传染病的演变和动态。近年来出现了艾滋病毒、非典、西尼罗河病毒（在美国）、耐甲氧西林金黄色葡萄球菌和一年前新的H1N1大流行。虽然疾病的治疗和机理研究通常属于临床医生和微生物学家的领域，但新传染病的出现主要是进化和生态学的问题。分子生物学可能会告诉我们是哪些突变使禽流感病毒适应了人与人之间的传播，但进化生物学会询问这些突变一旦出现后的命运，而流行病学会告诉我们病毒是否具有动态传播的能力。在了解疾病“出现”后如何控制疾病方面，进化生物学和种群生物学同样至关重要。第二个重点是我们的微生物群，即生活在我们身上的大量微生物。乍一看，这个新课题似乎与传染病无关，但它可能被证明与传染病有关，甚至更多。虽然现在正在进行基础工作，以确定我们的微生物组的组成，它在我们之间有何不同，以及它是如何变化的，但种群生物学（包括生态学）将为理解控制微生物组组成的过程以及如何操纵它以造福我们提供基础，例如各种益生菌和益生元物种对我们的健康和我们对传染性病原体的易感性的影响。在这些问题上取得进展需要医生与人口和进化生物学家交谈；理论家与实验家对话。我们建议将不同领域的科学家聚集在一起，专注于这些微生物和人类健康的前沿问题。因此，在这次会议上，将重点放在应用上，工业界和学者将举行会谈，试图控制和影响与人类有关的微生物。随后的思想交流，往往由全体与会者之间的公开辩论推动，将促使对这些重要的卫生问题产生新的概念和方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): 2011 Microbial Population Biology Gordon Conference Microbial population biology covers a diverse range of contemporary issues. Firmly founded in evolutionary biology and ecology with a strong integrative approach, the GRC in Microbial Population Biology attracts researchers from evolutionary biology, ecology, computational biology, molecular biology, medical microbiology and epidemiology, bacterial genetics, population genetics, and more recently, systems biology and metagenomics. This application seeks funding to support speakers and students at the 2011 meeting of the Microbial Population Biology GRC. One major emphasis of this meeting is the evolution and dynamics of infectious disease. Recent years have seen the emergence of HIV, SARS, West Nile (in the U.S.), MRSA, and a new H1N1 pandemic a year ago. While the treatment and mechanistic study of diseases typically falls within the domains of clinicians and microbiologists, the emergence of new infectious diseases is primarily a problem in evolution and ecology. Molecular biology might tell us which mutations adapt a bird flu virus to human-human transmission, but it is evolutionary biology that asks about the fate of those mutations once arisen, and epidemiology tells us if a virus is dynamically able to spread. Evolutionary and population biology are equally critical in understanding how to control diseases once they have 'emerged.' A second focus is our microbiome, the collective multitude of microbes living on us. Deceptively, this new topic may seem disconnected from infectious disease, but it may prove to be relevant to infectious disease and much more. Although basic work is now being done to identify what constitutes our microbiome, how it differs among us, and how it changes, population biology (including ecology) will provide the foundation for understanding the processes governing microbiome composition and how it might be manipulated to our benefit, such as the effects various probiotic and prebiotic species have on our health and our susceptibility to infectious agents. Progress on these problems requires that physicians talk with population and evolutionary biologists; that theorists talk with experimentalists. We propose to bring together a diverse spectrum of scientists to focus on these issues at the fore of microbes and human health. In this meeting, therefore, a strong emphasis is being placed on applications, with talks from industry and academicians attempting to control and influence microbes of human relevance. The ensuing exchange of ideas, often fuelled by open debate among the full spectrum of meeting participants, will provoke the emergence of new concepts and approaches for these important health issues. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Microbes are important to our health. Some cause infectious disease, others are part of our microbiome - the thousands of species inhabiting our gut and other surfaces that mediate our interaction with the environment. Much understanding of microbes has been and is being made at a mechanistic level, but understanding of the evolutionary and population dynamics of microbes and their communities lags. We propose a meeting of a broad swathe of scientists, including physicians, epidemiologists, molecular biologists and evolutionary and other population biologists, to focus on microbes and human health at the 2011 GRC on Microbial Population Biology.