September 2013
A F F I L I AT E S L E T T E R The official newsletter for FEMS Affiliates
All is ‘dobre’ at the FEMS Council 2013 Also in this issue: Publications Page Biofilms Pseudomonas Polar & Alpine Microbiology Grants Corner FEMS Research Fellowship FEMS-ASM Mäkelä - Cassell Grant Meeting Attendance Grants
For the 40th time, Delegates and Executive Officers joined for FEMS’ annual meeting, the Council, which was held this time in Lviv, Ukraine. Host was Andriy Sibirni, delegate for the Society of Microbiologists of Ukraine. 31 out of 38 countries - 38 out of 48 societies - were represented, making the Council a good representation of the FEMS members.
Major topics were successions of Executive Officers, developments within EAM and a new structure for EMF. On Friday, during the Delegates meeting preceding the Council meeting, the Belarus Deputy and Turkish Delegate (above) presented their societies. Continue on page 2.
Society Page Meet your Belarusian colleagues Deadlines FEMS-Sponsored Meetings Microbiology TidBits
The National Academy of Sciences, Lviv, Ukraine, was the main venue for the FEMS Council 2013
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Continuation of page 1.
Successions As determined by the FEMS statutes, the Council is to elect officers to form the Executive Committee. Since the three year term has ended for some of the Executive Officers, the following successions have taken place: • Jean-Claude Piffaretti, Vice-President, took over Presidency from Bernhard Schink
FEMS Council in the Mirror Hall
Jean-Claude Piffaretti, FEMS President for the term 2013-2016
• Bauke Oudega, Vice President-elect took over Vice Presidency from Jean-Claude Piffaretti
Deputy of BNAM, Galina Novic, presenting the Belarusian society to the FEMS Council
• Hans Wolf, Member-at-Large, stepped down • Per Eric Lindgren, Member-at-Large co-opted (Member of Meetings Board) has been elected Member-at-Large Meetings Board • Gianfranco Donelli has been re-elected Delegate Representative on the Meetings Board • Jim Prosser has been re-elected Publications Manager for another term of three years starting in 2014. Joanna Verran will continue for two more years working on Education, starting from now.
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Visiting the mayor of Lviv, from left to right: Bernhard Schink, Andriy Sibirny, Andriy Sadovyi (mayor of Lviv) and Jean-Claude Piffaretti
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Yeast Virtual Issue Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology FEMS Yeast Research has gathered a collection of articles into a Virtual Issue in conjunction with the 26th International Conference on Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology. Read the Virtual Issue now for the latest articles on Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology. FEMS Yeast Research contains Research Articles and Mini Reviews on all areas of yeast research. Scientists using yeast as a model organism for studying human diseases or general biological phenomena of broad interest are welcome to submit papers with direct relevance to the yeast community.
read the Virtual Issue
Eurobiofilms 2013 Eurobiofilms 2013, held from 9 to 12 September, was the third European Congress on Microbial Biofilms – Basic and Clinical Aspects. For four days it covered topics including mixed-species biofilms, microbial fuel cells, biofilm-related chronic wound infections, signaling in biofilms, clinical and basic aspects of fungal biofilms, mechanisms of biofilm resistance & tolerance, medical-device related biofilm infections, oral biofilms, biofilm heterogeneity & evolution, and microbial ecology. Biofilms III Pathogens and Disease invites submissions for a special Thematic Issue to coincide with Eurobiofilms 2013. All submitted papers should be complete in themselves and adequately supported by experimental detail; they should not be preliminary versions of communications to be published elsewhere. Prospective authors for MiniReviews should contact the Editors in advance. All manuscripts will undergo regular review by members of the Editorial Board and other appropriate experts. For instructions on submitting a manuscript and further information on the issue, visit the journal website Pathogens and Disease Submission Target Date: 1 November 2013
view previous issues Biofilms I (August 2010) and Biofilms II (July 2012)
“Many species of bacteria release chemicals freely into their environment in order to communicate with their neighbors. But this technique is the bacterial equivalent of a general posting top secret military maneuvers to Twitter.” — Joe Hanson discussing biofilms, www.wired.com P U B L I C AT I O N S PA G E
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Pseudomonas P. aeruginosa is still a dangerous pathogen in cystic fibrosis and in mechanically ventilated patients. This often despised ‘hospital bacteria’ is also able to decompose hydrocarbons and has been used to break down tarballs. Amazing metabolic abilities Visitors of the recently held 14th International Conference on Pseudomonas know the emphasis of Pseudomonas research has not changed much during the last couple of years. Still, the ubiquity and the amazing metabolic abilities of the genus Pseudomonas as well as the complex virulence mechanisms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa fascinates researchers around the globe. What has changed are the sophisticated tools that allow molecular insight into these diverse functions. Joint Special Issue FEMS is proud to issue a new Virtual Thematic Issue on Pseudomonas next year. It will be a Joint Special Issue of FEMS Microbiology Ecology, Letters and Pathogens & Disease and it will provide the up-to-date studies in this area. Contact Goda Sporn for more information.
For the second time this year, new l
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Polar and Alpine Microbiology PAM 5 is to be continued Following the 5th International Conference on Polar & Alpine Microbiology (PAM 5), FEMS issues a theme issue of Microbiology Ecology concerning, you guessed it, Polar and Alpine microbiology.
Call for papers FEMS Microbiology Ecology invites submissions for the special thematic issue on the ecology of microbes in cold environments. Topics of interest include: • Microbial ecology of cold terrestrial, cold aquatic and cold glacial environments • Microbial diversity of polar and alpine environments • Permafrost • Sub-zero Microbiology: Links to Other Ecosystems • Thresholds and Tipping Points in Polar and Alpine Environments • Subglacial Microbiology • Evolution of Psychrophilic Microorganisms • Biodiversity, Ecosystem Function, and Environmental Change • Earth’s Subzero Biosphere as a Model for Microbial Life on Other Icy Worlds All submitted papers should be complete in themselves and adequately supported by experimental detail; they should not be preliminary versions of communications to be published elsewhere. Prospective authors for MiniReviews should contact the Editors in advance. All manuscripts will undergo regular review by members of the Editorial Board and other appropriate experts. For instructions on submitting a manuscript, visit the journal website of FEMS Microbiology Ecology. Submission Target Date: 30 October 2013 Read more Find out more about the issue on the journal’s website.
Did you know FEMS income from journals is reinvested in science? Travel fellowships for students, grants to support meetings, etcetera. All the more reason to publish in a FEMS journal.
life was discovered in Antarctica
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FEMS Research Fellowships
Grant description
Application checklist
The FEMS Research Fellowship (FRF) is meant to assist young European scientists in pursuing research up to 3 months in a European country different from where they live. The FRF is intended to support travel and living costs of the Fellow.
FEMS Research Fellowships regulations apply to each FRF application. The requirements consist of, but are not limited to, the following:
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 younger than 36 years old.
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 online. 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 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 an active microbiologist.
• You are a citizen of a European country • You are a member of a FEMS member society (at least for one 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. • Your application is endorsed by the FEMS Delegate of your society. • 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 you • Your passport photograph Send your complete application as an electronic copy to grants@fems-microbiology.org and as a hard copy to FEMS Central Office before the deadline of 1 December 2013.
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FEMS-ASM Mäkelä - Cassell Grant The Mäkelä –Cassell Grant is a joint FEMS-ASM exchange program that in turns allows a young American or European scientist to join either the FEMS Congress or the ASM congress respectively. A visit at a research laboratory in the country where the congress is held is also part of the program. Earlier this year in the FEMS Affiliates Letter, we announced the first person to enjoy the exchange. Dr. Clayton Caswell from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg (USA) received the grant from FEMS President Bernhard Schink during the closing ceremony of the FEMS Congress. We are pleased to announce that FEMS can give out the FEMS-ASM Mäkelä –Cassell Grant this year for one of its scientists to join the ASM Congress from 17-20 May 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts. You can apply for the grant until 6 January, 2014. Please take a look at our website under grants where the application form will appear as of next 7 October.
Meeting Attendance Grants FEMS provides Meeting Attendance Grants to young European scientists wishing to attend microbiology meetings that are not supported by a FEMS Meetings Grant. Meeting Attendance Grants may support attendance at meetings worldwide but preference will be given to meetings within the European area. Four of these young scientists showed us where they spent their Grants (top to bottom): • Jovanka Lukic, at the Meeting 7th Probiotics, Prebiotics & New Food, Rome, Italy • Ben Folwel and Jessica Poole, at the ISMOS-4 conference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil • Janine Görsch, PAM 5, Big Sky, Montana, USA Read more... • Look at page 8 for the full interview with Janine Görsch. • Applying for Meeting Attendance grants? Visit the Meeting Attendance Grants page. G R AN T S CO R N ER
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Grantee Janine Görsch on Polar and Arctic microbiology We were curious how a young scientist would experience attending a conference as a Meeting Attendance Grantee. Janine Görsch went to the 5th international conference on Polar and Alpine Microbiology. Please see below for the interview we had afterwards. What study/studies did you do? I am in the second year of my PhD study at the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam. I work on sediment material of the El’gygytgyn Crater Lake – a lake in Far East Russian Arctic, which was formed by a meteorite impact 3.6 million years ago. This lake is very special: because it was not covered by a glacier, a continuously accumulation of sediment material was possible since the impact, and thus is represents the oldest terrestrial climate record of the Arctic. It contains information about the earlier climate history, and the evolution of life since the meteorite impact. I use this unique material to investigate variations in the abundance and distribution of microorganisms along the chronosequence. That is an excellent opportunity to study the development of microbial communities since 3.6 million years ago and to describe the potential metabolic activity of these microorganisms.
What are you working on now? At the moment I analyze sediment samples of a screening series. To do that I sampled sediment samples every 100,000 years between an age of 900 thousand and 3.6 million years to obtain a general overview of the entire sediment. I separate between the fossil and the recent microbial community and carry out subsequently qualitative and quantitative analyses.
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What is your connection to Polar and Arctic microbiology? I did my master thesis at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. In our group we worked on several studies in the Arctic and Antarctic – from glacier forefields in East Antarctica, Canadian polygons and permafrost studies in Siberia to the El’gygytgyn Crater Lake in Central Chukotka. It is very important to understand the carbon dynamics in dependence to changing environmental conditions and to analyze the microbial activity changes combined with increasing polar temperature.
What about the PAM conference was most useful to you? The 5th international conference on Polar and Alpine Microbiology in Montana was a great conference. I presented a talk about my project and was so surprised about the great, helpful discussion and ideas of the other participants. Also during both poster sessions, we talked a lot and discussed about current lab problems and connected each other for future collaborations. I would like to thank the Federation of European Microbiological Societies and the Potsdam Graduate School for funding and this unique possibility to be a part of the PAM 5.
What kind or research would you like to do, if anything was possible? If anything is possible, I would like to have a time machine and to see how microbes evolved and under which biotic and abiotic pressures. By the way: it would be also a great chance to prove the endosymbiotic theory.
reorg eignty Minist indus BNAM bers, s
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The Belarusian Non-governmental Association of Microbiologists (BNAM) Meet your Belarusian collegues BNAM fellows are microbiologists representing 13 national organizations and making up the total number of 130 persons. In 2010 BNAM was elected a Full Member of the FEMS.
BNAM members at the FEMS Congress 2013
BNAM activities are guided by Council that is composed of 12 executive members. The Council is chaired now by the Director of the Institute of Microbiology, Corresponding Member of Belarus National Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Biology, Emily Kolomiets.
Laying the basis As an example, during the period 2010-2013 BNAM hosted three international conferences and 10 workshops; 11 BNAM members within the framework of training programs or research fellowships visited and performed studies at leading scientific centers of Russia, Poland, Sweden, Ukraine; over 500 papers of BNAM members appeared in national and foreign editions. At the premises of the Institute of Microbiology in collaboration with the Belarusian State University and the Sakharov International Ecological University joint microbiology/ biotechnology chairs and Teaching-production complex were opened to allow students to get first-hand practical experience of research process and products, to master new methods, to carry out course and diploma projects at up-to-date level. The premises of the Institute of Microbiology, Belarus National Academy of Sciences –BNAM headquarters
Having been admitted to FEMS enables BNAM to set up and foster fruitful contacts with European colleagues, to participate in international forums using attendance- supporting grants.
BNAM Chairman Emily Kolomiets
For instance, in July 2013 seven members of the Society presented their papers at the 5th FEMS Congress in Leipzig. Two posters aroused vivid interest and laid the basis for further negotiations with potential cooperation partners.
The Belarusian Non-governmental Association of Microbiologists (BNAM) is the successor of the Belarusian Microbiological Society – the regional division of the former All-Union Micro-biological Society functioning in USSR. The history of the Society dates back to 1966 when its principal team member and coordinating core–the Department of Microbiology, the Belarusian Academy of Sciences - was founded. In 1975 the Department of Microbiology was ganized into the Institute of Microbiology. After disintegration of the Soviet Union and declaration of sovery of Belarus republic the Society was transformed and registered under its current designation by the Belarus stry of Justice on July 21, 2005. BNAM is an independent association uniting on voluntary grounds researchers, strial experts and university faculties interested in progress of microbiology and biotechnology in our republic. M carries out its activities in accordance with the Statute approved by the founding assembly of Society memstating that it is a public association of Belarus citizens and ruling out team membership of formal institutions. S O C I E T Y PA G E
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DEADLINES 1 December 2013 15 June 2014 FEMS Research Fellowships 15 December 2013 1 June 2014 FEMS National & Regional Congresses Grants 1 March 2014 FEMS Meeting Grants (for meetings to be held in 2015) 1 April 2014 1 September 2014 FEMS Meeting Attendance Grants
FEMS-Sponsored Meetings, Spring/Summer 2013 2 - 5 O c t o b e r 2 013 10th International Meeting on Microbial Epidemiological Markers, IMMEM-10, Paris, France. 9 - 12 October 2013 Power of Microbes in Industry and Environment 2013, Primosten, Croatia. 19 - 24 October 2013 Comparative Genomics of Eukaryotic Microorganisms: Patterns of Complexity in Eukaryotic Genomes, San Feliu de Guixols, Gerona, Spain.
The FEMS Affiliates Letter is a production of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies
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MICROBIOLOGY TIDBITS Biofuels, whiskey and me Did you know Henry Ford used biofuels for his car? Probably not, but you probably do know biofuels can be a part of the solution, searching sustainable energy solutions. In his TEDx Talk in Hong-Kong, Prof. Martin Tangney explains the need and ways to bring together research, government, industry and education and spreads the idea of using byproducts of whiskey, making biofuels with bacteries. Source: TedX
6 January 2013 FEMS - ASM Mäkelä - Cassell Grant
23 - 25 October 2013 Microbial Diversity 2013: Microbial Interactions in Complex Ecosystems, Turin, Italy.
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Gut bacteria with slimming or fattening effect Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine, Missouri, took gut bacteria from pairs of twins - one obese, one thin, and put them into mice. The mice with bacteria from fat twins grew fat; those that got bacteria from lean twins stayed lean. Although obesity has many contributors, including genetics and diet, the findings may shed a new light on obesity and future treatment based on gut bacteria. Source: Science Magazine Mice no longer fear cats due to parasite Mice, once infected by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, seem to have lost their fear of cats altogether. It was known that infected mice were insensitive to the urine smell of cats. Recent discoveries lead to believe that this change is permanent. Apparently, parasites can make a permanent change in their host’s body. Toxoplasma gondii parasite has been connected to bipolar disorder in humans. Source: Plos One Further reading: The Atlantic
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