FEMS Affiliates Letter May 2013

MAY 2013

A F F I L I AT E S L E T T E R The official newsletter for FEMS Affiliates

Join the Bad Bugs Bookclub at FEMS 2013 Special edition of Joanna Verran’s review sessions on microbiology novels

Also in this issue: Society Feature Russian member IACMAC Publications Page Hidden underground: soil microbiology Jensen Award 2013 Granted to Francesca Turroni

The Bad Bugs Bookclub discusses microbiology novels in local bars.

Grants Corner FEMS Research Fellowship Deadlines FEMS-Sponsored Meetings Microbiology TidBits

She has already organised 25 sessions in bars in her home town Manchester over the past four years. And in July, there will be a special meeting of her Bad Bugs Bookclub in a Leipzig Biergarten for the participants of the FEMS 2013 congress. Start reading Nemesis by Philip Roth, and join Joanna Verran at this informal get-together, highlighting the microbiological aspects of an easy-to-read novel.

Joanna Verran is FEMS’ co-opted member at large for microbiology education across Europe. Within the Federation, she is currently bringing together a group of representatives from all our member societies, to discuss issues on microbiology education. But her initiatives also exist

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on a local scale, as shown by her ‘Bad Bugs Book Club’. Bookclub meetings last for around 60-90 minutes, and are held in different venues (often pubs!) across Manchester. Verran has already reviewed the scientific and microbiological insights of about 25 novels, intended for general reading.

‘With the Bad Bugs Bookclub, we want to get people interested in science, specifically microbiology’, Verran says, ‘by reading novels in which infectious disease forms some part of the story. We also try to associate books, where possible, with some other activity or event, to widen the interest and to broaden the impact.’

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Not just fun During FEMS 2013, Verran will set up a special session of her bookclub, especially intended for congress participants. In Leipzig, a novel called Nemesis will be discussed. Verran: ‘It is about an outbreak of polio in a Jewish area of Newark, New Jersey in 1944. But it is also a great read, narrated by a child who was affected during the outbreak.

The child describes the impact of the events in the life of Bucky Cantor, the school playground instructor.’

Award winning author The author of Nemesis is Philip Roth. In 2011, he was the winner of the prestigious Man Booker International Award, a biennial prize given to writers of fiction for their lifetime of work.

New bookclubs Apart from the fact that a meeting of the Bad Bugs Bookclub can be a fun activity during evening hours, it also serves another goal. Verran: ‘We would like to encourage others to set up their own local bookclub, suggesting books and accompanying activities to all other clubs. I hope and expect that among the attendants of FEMS 2013, potential new bookclub initiators could be present.’

According to Verran, polio is still a disease of importance today. ‘WHO is coordinating a global eradication scheme, reducing cases by over 99% since 1988. The numbers decreased from an original 350,000 people infected to 1,352 in 2010. India Want to know more? Visit the Bad Bugs Bookclub was recently declared polio-free, but it remains website. persistent on Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and in Northern Nigeria.’

How to prepare yourself for the Bad Bugs Bookclub session in Leipzig You are all invited to take part in the FEMS 2013 edition of the Bad Bugs Bookclub. To get prepared, acquire and read the novel Nemesis by Philip Roth over the next two months. You can buy it online or in your local book shop.

At the congress, please look out for further announcements regarding time and location. We will try and find a Biergarten near to the conference location!

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Our Russian member IACMAC One of FEMS’ Russian member societies is IACMAC, the Interregional Association for Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. It is an active association that initiates both scientific and educational activities.

IACMAC was founded in 1997 and now includes over 1,500 members from 36 regions in Russia.

The association is an adviser of various international organizations, such as WHO and the APUA. It publishes Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, a quarterly and internationally peer-reviewed journal. Members of IACMAC receive this journal and have on-line access to all issues.

Monitoring antibiotic resistance The association has established programs of regional and interregional antibiotic resistance monitoring (RusNet) and is now developing plans to expand these programs onto national level.

Furthermore, some clinical and microbiological multicenter studies were founded under the direction of IACMAC. Research is done on the

IACMAC president Roman Kozlov.

spread and resistance of RTI, UTI, bloodstream and surgical infections of pathogens from both hospitals and the community.

Several annual meetings Each year in May, IACMAC organizes the international congress on antimicrobial therapy in Moscow. Since 1997, it has gathered more than 15,000 specialists, among them more than 1,000 microbiologists, on various congresses, conferences and workshops throughout Russia.

Online and offline schooling Bacteriologists and clinicians in Russia can follow graduate courses on bacteriology and clinical pharmacology, organized by IACMAC. The association also published a practical paper guide on anti-infective chemotherapy. Until now, 55,000 copies have been distributed free of charge already.

IACMAC has established www.antibiotic.ru, the first non-commercial information portal and online center of distance education on antimicrobial therapy in Russia. This website, which complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information, gives health practitioners, medical tutors, post-graduates, registrars and pharmaceutical professional the opportunity to improve their knowledge on antimicrobial therapy of internal diseases for free.

Attendants of a IACMAC Regional Conference.

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Check out www.iacmac.ru for more information.

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Hidden underground Microbes are present in every habitat you can possibly think of, but they are especially abundant below ground. FEMS journals have published on microbial soil life extensively and this month, FEMS Microbiology Letters is dedicating its first thematic issue on one important group of soil inhabitants: Actinobacteria. Find out more about a world of intriguing life forms hidden underground.

Actinobacteria in soils make up one of the largest groups of bacteria. Members of the phylum take part in many subsurface processes, like the decomposition of organic materials. Evidently, much research on soil Actinobacteria has already been done, but even more is still to be discovered. That is why the second May issue of FEMS Microbiology Letters has been dedicated totally to this group, revealing their importance to a wide range of microbiologists.

This thematic issue is based on the topics of a recent symposium in M端nster, Germany: the varied capacities of soil Actinobacteria for mutualism, symbiosis and pathogenesis. You will find publications on strategies for interaction with insects, amoebae, other bacteria and fungi, on community dynamics, symbiosis with plants, plant pathogenic traits, and on lessons deduced from genomics, stress responses and regulatory aspects. Read the issue online.

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Subsurface microbiology: the life below our feet FEMS Microbiology Ecology 81:1 was a special issue on subsurface microbiology in general. Quoting the issue editor Tillmann Lueders, ‘mankind currently experiences an increasing urge to venture into the subsurface, just like in Jules Verne’s classic novel ������������������������������������������������������� A Journey to the Centre of the Earth������������������� ’. Well, FEMS Ecology has done so! It went to caves and karsts, to polluted aquifers, to the deep terrestrial subsurface, to mines, gas and coal formations, to waste deposition sites, to shallow and deep marine sediments and to methane hydrate deposits.

Sediments from the Flingern aquifer, used for research on the ecology of hydrocarbon degradation. Kellerman et al. (2012), FEMS Microbiology Ecology 81:1.

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Soil microcosm determines bacterial diversity From the human eye, soils may seem rather homogenous habitats. But when you look at it from a microbial point-of-view, this is not at all true. The species diversity of bacteria in soils is directly caused by micro-scale factors like matrix heterogeneity, convective water flow and weathering. It is all discussed very recently in FEMS Microbiology Reviews.

Enlargements of soil particles shows that soils aren’t as homogenous as we might think. Vos et al. (2013), FEMS Microbiology Reviews.

Standardization of methods As all scientists know, method standardization is crucial for correct data comparison and interpretation. A minireview in FEMS Microbiology Ecology presents an overview of the existing and forthcoming ISO standards in soil microbiology. It highlights possible future research efforts to be undertaken for developing new standards.

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Jensen Award for Francesca Turroni The Jensen Award 2013 has been granted to Dr. Francesca Turroni from the Probiogenomcs Lab of the University of Parma, Italy. Dr. Turroni will evaluate the crosstalk of bifidobacteria with their host, the human gut, at University College Cork, Ireland.

Bifidobacteria are anaerobic, Gram-positive and branched rod-shaped bacteria that are common in the gastro-intestinal tracts of humans and most other animals, even insects. Their presence has been associated with beneficial health effects, such as the prevention of diarrhea in patients treated with antibiotics, lactose intolerance, cholesterol reduction and immunomodulation. This knowledge has caused the widespread use of bifidobacteria as components of health-promoting or ‘probiotic’ food.

Despite their generally accepted importance, little is known about the molecular background of the probiotic features of bifidobacteria. Turroni’s project will shed light on the genetics underlying the interactions between bifidobacteria and their hosts. It will offer crucial information to facilitate the discovery of ‘probiotic’ genes.

Turroni has been recommended by Dr. Abelardo Margolles from CSIC in Villaviciosa, Spain and by Dr. Marco Ventura from the University of Parma.

During the project, she will be supervised by Dr. Douwe van Sinderen.

Stay updated with FEMSTweets!

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FEMS Research Fellowships 15 June of each year is a deadline for the FEMS Research Fellowships Grants. Interested in applying? Do it on time and send your complete application file to FEMS Central Office by email and as a hard copy.

Grant description

Application checklist

FEMS Research Fellowships are meant to assist young European scientists in pursuing research up to 3 months in a European country different from that in which he/she lives. These grants are intended to support travel and living costs of the Fellow only.

FEMS Research Fellowships regulations apply to each application for the FEMS Research Fellowships.

A FEMS Research Fellowship covers travel (at economy rates) and living costs for the fellow to a maximum of EUR 4 000 (no financial assistance for the host - e.g. bench fees).

• You are an active microbiologist.

The requirements consist of, but are not limited to the following:

• You are below 36 years of age.

• You are a citizen of a European country.

The deadlines for receipt of applications at FEMS Central Office are 1 December (first round) and 15 June (second round).

The regulations and application forms are available electronically. Please read them carefully and check the list at the right before contacting the FEMS Central Office.

Upon its receipt at FEMS Central Office, the application is checked for eligibility and completeness.

Complete applications are then submitted to the Grants Board.

The Grants Board formulates its recommendations to the Executive Committee, which then makes the final decision that will be communicated soon thereafter.

• You are a member of a FEMS member society (at least for 1 year before applying).

• You will pursue your project in a European country which is not your country of residence.

• You have thoroughly read the regulations governing FEMS Research Fellowships • You have completed the relevant application form available on the FEMS website with the following attachments: - Your curriculum vitae - Letter of reference - Letter of acceptance from the host laboratory - Research project proposal written by yourself - Your photograph

• Your application is endorsed by a FEMS Delegate.

Send the complete application to grants@ fems-microbiology.org before the deadline of 15 June 2013.

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MICROBIOLOGY TIDBITS Liquorice DNA Do you want to explain very visually to someone how DNA is built up (or are you just looking for a nice way to spend your Sunday afternoon)? Make your own DNA double helix out of winegums or liquorice, using these instructions.

Great side benefit: enjoy the bases, desoxyriboses and phosphates afterwards. But make your helix as it should be! Apparently, double helixes are often pictured turning to the left. But that wouldn’t result in life as we know it. So be wise and let your DNA turn to the right.

1 June 2013 15 December 2013 FEMS National & Regional Congresses Grants 15 June 2013 1 December 2013 FEMS Research Fellowships 1 September 2013 1 April 2014 FEMS Meeting Attendance Grants 1 December 2013 FEMS - ASM Exchange Grant

How malaria parasites act – and how we can stop them

1 March 2014 FEMS Meeting Grants (for meetings to be held in 2015)

FEMS-Sponsored Meetings, Spring/Summer 2013 19 -21 J u n e 2 013 9th International Symposium on the Biology of Acinetobacter, Cologne, Germany.

2 9 A u g u s t - 3 S e p t e m b e r 2 013 26th International Conference on Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology, Frankfurt/M, Germany.

7 - 11 September 2013 14th International Conference on Pseudomonas, Lausanne, Switzerland.

8 - 13 September 2013 Symposium on Aquatic Microbial Ecology, SAME13, Stresa, Italy.

8 - 13 September 2013 Thermophiles 2013, Regensburg, Germany.

The FEMS Affiliates Letter is a production of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies

The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum has got a very effective way of making its vector bring him to a new host. It triples the sense of smell in Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes, enabling the insect to find human blood much quicker. On top of that, the mosquitos take significantly larger meals each time. Read the open access article in PLoS ONE.

On the other hand, there are also indications that we might one day be able to bring a halt to malaria, although for now only through another mosquito species. Nature published an investigation in which the Wolbachia bacteria, which kills the P. falciparum parasite, can be passed on from generation to generation in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

Mutation hot spot in Schmallenberg virus The June issue of the Journal of General Virology reports new insights into the Schmallenberg virus. Scientists found a hypervariable region in its M-segment. The arbovirus, spread by midges, causes malformations and stillborn in sheep and is only known since December 2011. In the UK, a vaccine will become available soon.

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