Programme

The Summer School will be two weeks long. The programme includes lectures, research seminars, and the development of a short written research project to be presented by the students. 

Main Topics of the Course

The host-microbe symbioses field is clearly moving towards a causal understanding of these interactions. This has been possible through a multi-disciplinary approach and the integration of different research areas. By manipulating the microbiota composition, the importance of specific bacteria or the balance between different bacteria has been established in many systems. Moreover, these interactions start to be understood at the functional molecular level.

In this course an emphasis will be given to recent advances in the functional understanding of symbioses. We will have a particular focus on chemical sensing, metabolomics and genomics of the host and their symbionts. Participants will be exposed to leaders in the field with different expertise and experience in studying symbioses from many different angles.

The course will consist of general lectures, research seminars and organized working discussion groups. Lectures will cover the state of the art in specific areas of the field and will give the students a broad view of that area. Lecturers will also present their own research on these topics giving the students insight on how specific problems are currently addressed. Finally, students will develop a research proposal throughout the two weeks. Students will identify important questions in the field and propose a research project to address them. The work will be based on literature research and daily discussions with the lecturers.

Confirmed lecturers

Martin Blaser (Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, US)

Thomas Bosch (Kiel University and Metaorganisms CRC, Kiel, Germany)

Kat Coyte (University of Manchester, Manchester, UK)

Jocelyne Demengeot (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal) 

Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello (Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, US)

Nicole Dubilier (Max Plank Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany)

Philipp Engel (University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland)

Sarela Garcia-Santamarina (Instituto de Tecnologia Quimica e Biológica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Oeiras, Portugal)

Isabel Gordo (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal)

Louis-Patrick Haraoui (University of Sherbrooke, CA)

Rob Knight (University of California San Diego, CA, US)

Waldan Kwong (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal)

Margaret McFall-Ngai (Carnegie Institution for Science, Pasadena, CA, US)

Ned Ruby (Carnegie Institution for Science, Pasadena, CA, US)

Hinrich Schulenburg (Kiel University and Metaorganisms CRC, Kiel, Germany)

Miguel Soares (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal)

Luís Teixeira (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal)

Karina Xavier (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal)

Maria Zimmermann-Kogadeva (European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany)

Michael Zimmermann (European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany)