Scientific Calendar Event



Starts 3 Jul 2017
Ends 7 Jul 2017
Central European Time
ICTP
Budinich Lecture Hall (LB)
Strada Costiera, 11 I - 34151 Trieste (Italy)
 
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in collaboration with the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) and the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics (APCTP) is organizing the Workshop on Systems Biology and Molecular Economy of Microbial Communities, to be held in Trieste from 3 to 7 July 2017.
Every living cell needs to solve a complex resource allocation problem. Most microbial cells typically address this task within a spatially structured, variable environment, where a myriad of different cells are concurrently allocating their own resources. Will we ever understand the dynamics of these communities, their diversity and stability? A fundamental theme in the study of human-associated microbial communities, the tension between metabolic requirements of individual cells and the global molecular budget of a whole cell population is at the heart of open biomedical challenges. The key element in addressing these questions is their multiscale nature: mutations and regulation happen at the level of individual genes; metabolic processes involve the balance of cell-scale pathways; biomedically relevant phenotypes depend on the interactions among multiple cells in heterogenous environments. The Workshop aims at bringing together researchers interested in the principles underlying microbial community dynamics and organization, both from an experimental and a mathematical/computational perspective. Participants will compare different methodologies to better integrate quantitative approaches and data gathering efforts, including the creative use of new mathematical tools, high performance computing algorithms and new ways of integrating experimental measurements and computational models.

Topics:
  • Ecological and evolutionary dynamics / Ecological models of microbial communities; Population and evolutionary dynamics; Game theoretic approaches to cooperation, cross-feeding and competition
  • Spatio-temporal dynamics of microbial consortia
  • Synthetic biology and synthetic ecology
  • General Equilibrium Economics of metabolic production in microbial communities
  • Stoichiometric models of metabolism, from genomes to ecosystems
  • Cell-to-cell signaling and quorum sensing
  • Metagenomic and metatranscriptomic methods for communities
  • Host-microbe interaction / Microbe-host interaction (e.g. antibiotic resistance); Human microbiome, systemic stability and disease; Plant resistance); Human microbiome, systemic stability and disease; Plant microbiome, parasites and diseases

Grants
A limited number of grants are available to support the attendance of selected participants, with priority given to participants from developing countries (see list here) and ICGEB Member State nationals (see list here).
There are no registration fees.

The Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics (APCTP) supports a limited number of participants from the Asia Pacific Region. Specifically, participants holding nationality of APCTP Member Countries (see list here), particularly those at the early stages of their career, can apply for grants to support their participation. Grants can partially cover the airfare and/or local expenses.
Participants from non-member countries are not qualified for the grant in principle, but a limited exception may be considered if participants are affiliated at APCTP partner institutes (see list here).

Organizers

Daniel Segre' (Boston University), Simon Levin (Princeton University), Vittorio Venturi (ICGEB), Pan-Jun Kim (KAIST), Local Organiser: Matteo Marsili

Co-sponsors