AFFILIATES LETTER

DECEMBER 2018

FEMS Summer School for Postdocs: Applications OpenThe FEMS Summer School for Postdocs will recognise 25 of the most talented and promising researchers from across the world – with spaces reserved for 15-20 European and 5-10 non-European students. It is designed to support personal and professional development through 10 days of close work with top scientists, and to enable and encourage research collaboration across all fields of Microbiology.

The application system is now open for the first FEMS Summer School for Postdocs and will remain open until 15 March 2019. The FEMS Summer

School will run for 10 days from 28 August to 7 September 2019. Accommodation and all facilities will be located in the Mediterranean Institute for Life Sciences (MedILS) in Split, Croatia.

Founded in 2003 by Prof. Miroslav Radman and Prof. Marija Alačević, MedILS is an independently funded,

international, non-profit research institute located on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, only 3km from Split city centre. Research endeavours of MedILS are primarily focused on developing highly original, multidisciplinary approaches designed to provide novel insights into the fundamental concepts of molecular organisation and functioning of living organisms.

The Summer School presents a unique opportunity for early career researchers to receive instruction and supervision from prominent academics: Prof Miroslav Radman, Prof Graham Walker, and Prof Ivan Matic are just a few of the top scientists who have confirmed their involvement.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUEPUBLICATIONS / GRANTS CORNER / OPPORTUNITIES / DEADLINES

THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER

Delftechpark 37A, 2628 XJ Delft, The NetherlandsT: +31 15 302 0050 | E: fems@fems-microbiology.org

Table of Contents

• Page 2: Seasons Greetings, FEMS

Project Proposals, and

EUROmicroMOOC

analytics report

• Page 3: FEMS2019 Congress Updates,

Volunteer Recruitment,

RNA Signalling

• Pages 4-5: The latest science published in each

of the FEMS Journals

• Page 6: FEMS2019 Congress Attendance

Grants

• Page 7: Jobs and Opportunities

• Page 8: Deadlines,

FEMS Sponsored Events,

and Extras...

Go to the FEMS Summer School for Postdocs website for details >

DECEMBER 2018

Volunteers Needed: Wikipedia TaskforceWe are looking for experienced Wikipedians who want to advance the understanding of Microbiology by increasing both quality and importance of Wikipedia articles of the WikiProject Microbiology according to Wikipedia’s community standards. The volunteers will work under the guidance of experts from FEMS Editorial Boards as well as authors, and will receive coordination by the FEMS Team to ensure highest scientific accuracy of curated entries. Skills in non-English languages may be of help to translate the pages and increase reach.

Please apply for this position with a short CV and application letter showing your previous experience editing Wikipedia pages. If you need additional information contact corrado.nai@fems-microbiology.org for more details.

Access all the EUROmicroMOOC courses through the online archive on Wakelet >

Submit your collaboration proposal here >

Seasons Greetings!From everyone in the FEMS team, we wish you happy holidays and all the best in the New Year!

2018 has been a year of transformation in the FEMS Business Office and we can’t wait to deliver on all our plans for next year: microbiology communication cam-paigns; FEMS Congress 2019 (7-11 July, Glasgow, Scotland); numerous volunteer projects, and much more...

We hope all our affiliates have had a great year too, and we look forward to seeing all the new advances in microbiology wordwide in 2019.

EUROmicroMOOC analytics report

The EUROmicroMOOC course delivered 21 lessons on microbiology, involving 21 teachers from across the world, through the Spanish Society for Microbiology’s twitter account (@SEMicrobiologia). Each lecture consisted of 30-40 tweets, delivered 3 times a week from 17:00, from 1 October ot 15 November.After 7 weeks of courses, project lead Ignacio López-Goñi produced a final analytics report on its outcomes:• the course comprised of 738 tweets, 439

images, 74 videos, and 340 hyperlinks to web pages related to microbiology

• the number of unique users who have seen posts containing #EUROmicroMOOC was 3,041,388

• the number of impression (times that users have seen post containing #EUROmicroMOOC) was 47,295,396

Figure 1. Location of the posts with the hashtag #EUROmicroMOOC per country. Tracking was made using the software Keyhole.

(64.5% of the followers were located in Spain, 13.9% were from the rest of Europe, 10.2% from Latin America, 5.7% from the USA and 5.7% from other countries)

Project ProposalsFEMS has been working together with Member Societies to support a variety of initatives by increasing the impact of these activities. Recent examples have been International Microorganism Day (17 September), the EUROmicroMOOC (see below for the final report), and the FEMS Summer School for Postdocs. We are continuing to invite proposals for collaboration from Members who have projects where FEMS could provide:

• Support with promotion and communication• Support with volunteers and recruitment• Advice on volunteer management

Proposals will be reviewed by the Board of Directors to see which should be incorporated into the FEMS delivery programme. Proposals will be next considered in January 2019

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE:

15 JANUARY 2019

http://bit.ly/2mwuqN6http://www.femsjournals.com/content/virtual-special-issue-conference-physiology-yeasts-and-filamentous-fungi-pyff6http://bit.ly/2mwuqN6http://bit.ly/2mwuqN6http://www.femsjournals.com/content/virtual-special-issue-conference-physiology-yeasts-and-filamentous-fungi-pyff6

4 DECEMBER 2018

Pathogens and DiseaseMiniReview

FIC proteins: from bacteria to humans and back again

During the last decade, FIC proteins have emerged as a large family comprised of a variety of bacterial enzymes and a single member in animals. In this review, the authors discuss how structural, biochemical and cellular approaches have fertilized each other to understand the mechanism, regulation and function of FIC proteins from bacterial pathogens to humans.

Authors: Veyron, Peyroche, and Cherfils

PUBLICATIONSFEMS Microbiology ReviewsReview

Transmission as a basic process in microbial biology. Lwoff Award Prize Lecture

Transmission is a basic process in biology and evolution, as it communicates different biological entities within and across hierarchical levels (from genes to holobionts) both in time and space. This review is based on the concepts presented at the André Lwoff Award Lecture in the FEMS Microbiology Congress in Maastricht in 2015.

Author: Fernando Baquero

FEMS Microbiology EcologyResearch Article

Impact of carbohydrate substrate complexity on the diversity of the human colonic microbiota

The diversity of the colonic microbial community has been linked with health in adults and diet composition is one possible determinant of diversity. This study used carefully controlled conditions in vitro to determine how the complexity and multiplicity of growth substrates influence species diversity of the human colonic microbiota.

Authors: Faith Cung, Walker, Vermeiren, Sheridan, Bosscher, Garcia-Campayo, Parkhill, Flint, and Duncan

FEMS Yeast ResearchMiniReview

Yeast as a model to study protein misfolding in aged cells

The authors review research using yeast models of protein misfolding diseases, such as the neurodegenerative diseases ALS, Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, and discuss limitations of these models and suggest approaches that will allow exploration of the nexus of aging and protein misfolding in chronologically aged yeast cells.

Authors: Di Greorio and Duennwald

FEMS Microbiology LettersResearch Article

Prediction and identification of novel sRNAs involved in Agrobacterium strains by integrated genome-wide and transcriptome-based methods

Small RNAs (sRNAs) are a class of gene regulators in bacteria, playing a central role in their response to environmental changes. Bioinformatic prediction facilitates the identification of sRNAs expressed under different conditions. The authors propose a novel method of prediction of sRNAs from the genome of Agrobacterium based on a positional weight matrix of conditional sigma factors.

Authors: Raja, Kumar, Sabapathy, Kumariah, Rajendran, and Tennyson

New Thematic Issue: Bacterial ToxinsWe are very excited to announce the publication of a new Thematic Issue of FEMS Pathogens & Disease on the topic of Bacterial Toxins. Covering topics in toxinology, immunology, protein structure, and bacterial virulence, this issue is a culmination of the recent European Workshop on Bacterial Protein Toxins (ETOX18), which took place in France, June 2017.

Papers were commissioned and edited by Guest Editors Michel-Robert Popoff, Daniel Ladant, and Carmen Buchrieser, and will be freely available online until the end of February 2019.

https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnx014https://doi.org/10.1093/femspd/ftx010https://doi.org/10.1093/femsre/fuw045https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiw249https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnx014https://doi.org/10.1093/femspd/ftx010

6 DECEMBER 2018

GRANTS CORNER OPPORTUNITIESGrants for Attending FEMS2019 Congress

Made possible through colloboration with ALAM, ASM, and SfAM

The FEMS-ASM Mäkelä-Cassell Travel award for Early Career Scientists will be awarded once more at FEMS2019, thanks to a long-running collaboration with the American Society of Microbiology (ASM).

This award supports the reciprocal exchange of one member from each organization to present his/her research at the other organization’s main conference.

It has been designed to benefit early career scientists from both organizations by giving them the opportunity to present their work overseas and experience the best of microbiology in the partner country.

ASM members that register for the upcoming FEMS Congress, can apply for the Award until 15 January 2019 on the Congress website.

Deadline: 15 January 2019

Post on our Opportunities Board!

Do you want to promote your event, job, funding or interesting projects on our website to the wider microbiology

community?

You can do this on our Opportunities Board!Here you can find FEMS-sponsored events and funding, as well as many other exciting jobs, events, courses, resources and funding

opportunities from the microbiology community.

Job of the monthPhD Scholarship within Environmental

Microbiology: Norway

Final application date: 15.01.2019University: Norwegian University of Life Sciences -

NMBULocation: Ås, Norway

Email: linda.bergaust@nmbu.no

The Faculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science (KBM) at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) has a vacant 3 year PhD–position within environmental microbiology. The successful candidate will be anchored in the NMBU Nitrogen group, which consists of members from the research group Microbial Ecology and Physiology at KBM and partners at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management (MINA).

The FEMS Congress Attendance Grant is for European and non-European Early Career Scientists to support their attendance at the 8th FEMS Congress of European Microbiologists, July 7 – 11,

2019, Glasgow, Scotland.

The grant provides a waiver of the registration fee.

FEMS will organize a special networking and social event for all grant recipients. Further details available on this website when available, and will be included

in the final programme book.

Deadline: 15 January 2019

SfAM provides five different grants to assist its members attending the 8th Congress of European Microbiologists:

SfAM & FEMS Congress Accommodation GrantSfAM Conference Studentship Grant*SfAM President’s Fund Grant*SfAM Registration Fees Grant*SfAM Care Support Grant

*Deadline: 15 January 2019This December we are very pleased to announce that a new Thematic Issue of FEMS Microbiology Letters has been published on the topic of Industrial Microbiology. This Thematic Issue of 22 articles is guest edited by CR Harwood, SH Park, and M Sauer.

http://fems-microbiology.org/fems-work/grants/fems-research-grants/http://fems-microbiology.org/fems-work/grants/fems-research-grants/http://fems-microbiology.org/fems-work/grants/fems-research-grants/https://fems-microbiology.org/network/opportunities-board/

8

EXTRAS

Mars’s methane has gone missing. Scientists first detected traces of the gas—a critical indicator of life on Earth—in the planet’s atmosphere decades ago. But now researchers reported that a European satellite hasn’t spotted a single trace of methane. The finding, if it holds up, could complicate scientific dreams that martian microbes might be spewing the gas in the planet’s subsurface.

Source: Science

The Earth is far more alive than previously thought, according to “deep life” studies that reveal a rich ecosystem beneath our feet that is almost twice the size of all the world’s oceans.

Source: The Guardian

From journeys into mines to explorations of volcanoes on the ocean floor, deep voyages reveal the richness of the planet’s deep biosphere. Several articles from FEMS Microbiology Ecology contribute to this rich tale of subsurface microbial discovery

Source: The Scientist

DEADLINES EVENTS

Post your Events with us >

12.01.2019, USA | Understanding the Host-Fungal Dialogue: Impliations for Therapy & Management >

13.01.2019, USA | Keystone Symposia: Host and The Environment in IBD >

13.01.2019, USA | Mechanisms of Fungal Immunopathology >

29.01.2019, USA | 2019 ASM Biothreats >

03.02.2019, USA | GRC: Understanding Human Diseases Through Metabolomics >

24.02.2019, Italy | GRC: Mechanisms and Application: Antimicrobial Host Defense Peptides >

25.02.2019, USA | Microbial Genomics & Metagenomics workshops >

26.02.2019, USA | CMI 1st Annual International Microbiome Meeting and 1st Urobiome Meeting >

‘‘From journeys into mines to explorations of volcanoes on the ocean floor, deep voyages reveal the richness of the planet’s

deep biosphere.”

http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/http://https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161222143401.htmhttps://www.newscientist.com/article/2124893-tardigrades-turn-into-glass-to-survive-complete-dehydration/https://phys.org/news/2017-03-anti-bacterial-discovery-infections-medical-devices.htmlhttps://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170314081623.htmhttp://fems-microbiology.org/fems-work/grants/fems-meeting-grants/http://fems-microbiology.org/fems-work/grants/fems-meeting-grants/http://fems-microbiology.org/fems-work/grants/fems-meeting-grants/

MeetingsMembershipA Diverse CommunityActivities

Button 152: Button 158: Button 159: Button 170: Button 171: Button 22: Button 26: Button 23: Button 24: Button 151: Button 174: Button 27: Button 167: Button 172: Button 173: Button 42: Button 43: Button 44: Button 1010: Button 1011: Button 1012: