Out Now: FEMS Affiliates Letter

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FEMS Affiliates Letter - January 2022

Dear {contact.first_name},

In this New Year issue for January 2022, we have plenty of news to kick start your year of microbiology and to keep you educated, informed and inspired over the next few weeks!

Find out about upcoming microbiology events, opportunities, and initiatives, listen to the latest episode of our Microbes and Us podcast, watch out latest FEMS Webinar, gain access to all the taks from the International Microorganism Day 2021 Live Stream, and read up on the latest research and news from the FEMS Journals.

Browse through the FEMS Affiliates Letter for more.

1. Microbiology News and Events
2. The FEMS Journals
3. Policy Corner
4. Grants Corner
5. Opportunities
6. Extras

My best regards,

Joseph Brooks Shuttleworth, Science Communications Project Manager

1. Microbiology News and Events

FEMS Conference on Microbiology 2022 – Abstract Submission Deadline is extended until 2
February 2022!

The FEMS Conference on Microbiology 2022 abstract submission deadline has been extended! Are you ready to submit?

Abstract submission is still possible until 2 February 2022, 23:59 CET!

FEMS and the Serbian Society for Microbiology (SSM) are looking forward to receiving your abstracts and to meeting you at the Belgrade Conference in June 2022!

Read our abstract guidelines here or submit via this link!

The Conference Scientific Committee is happy to accept abstracts from the following topics:

- Advanced Microbiology Techniques
- Antimicrobial Resistance
- Biotechnology and Industrial Microbiology
- Emerging and Re-Emerging Infections (Fungal, Bacterial, Viral, Parasitic)
- Environmental Microbiology
- Food Microbiology
- Miscellaneous
- Plant Microbiology

Let us know if you have any questions at belgrade2022@fems-microbiology.org!

Submit your abstract now

Apply for FEMS Industry Placement Grants (IPG)! Deadline February 1st

Applications for FEMS Industry Placement Grants (IPG) are now open and deadlines are February 1st and August 1st!

FEMS IPG allow Early Career Scientists to acquire experience in industry with the financial support of FEMS.

Applicants should be active microbiologists, having obtained their highest degree less than five years prior to the application deadline date or be a PhD student.

Periods of maternity/paternity leave, special leave or illness do not count toward this definition. They should be a member of a FEMS Member Society.

All industries qualifies, including non-laboratory research, as long as relevant for microbiology. All information and link to the application portal are on the FEMS IPG page.

Apply Now

Apply now for the FEMS-Jensen Award

Applications for the Jensen Award are now open until the deadline of 1 March 2022, 23:59 PM CET.

At FEMS, we aim to recognize academic achievement and superior research accomplishments. The FEMS-Jensen Award helps early career scientists, showing significant potential, in establishing their research career.

The award comprises a fellowship for spending at least half a year in an outstanding research laboratory chosen by the applicant. The maximum award amounts to EUR 10,000.

More information

Nominate someone now for the FEMS-Lwoff Award

Nominations for the 2023 FEMS-Lwoff Award are now open until the deadline of: 10 March 2022, 23:59 PM CET.

At FEMS, we aim to recognize academic achievement and superior research accomplishments. The FEMS-Lwoff Award aims to award those that create high quality knowledge that helps solving
today’s societal problems around microbiology.

Winners receive a prize-lecture at the opening ceremony of FEMS 2023 – with up to five free registrations to the 10th FEMS Congress, the opportunity to present research to the wider microbiology community via the FEMS Journals and FEMS communication channels, a commemorative silver medal and an honorarium of EUR 1,000.

More information

We film the Danish Microbiological Society (DMS) Congress

Our Communications Team visited Copenhagen back in November to film some of the amazing scientists at the Danish Microbiological Society (DMS) Congress.

Featuring interviews with Plenary Lecturer Mette Nicolaisen, Ville Friman, Marco Bo Hansen, and
Keynote Speaker Martin J Blaser. We also took the time to meet many of the Poster Presenters at the conference. If you’re missing in-person conferences, then these are the videos for you!

Watch the videos

IMD2021 Live Stream Video Playlist

We have edited all the sessions and talks from our 24-hour live stream for International Microorganism Day 2021 into a playlist of videos for all to see.

This year, the variety and depth of our speakers and guests is outstanding.
Watch amazing content ranging from beer and wine tours, to sessions on
magnetotactic organisms, to our Women in Science illustration project and artistic explorations of microbiology.

We thanks all the guests and speakers involved in IMD2021!

Access the Playlist here

Watch our most recent FEMS webinar

Watch our most recent webinar: FEMS Microbiology Ecology Webinar on Approaches, Methods and
Challenges in Microbiome Research.

This webinar explores some of the new developments and challenges in microbiome research methods and takes a critical look at what we can learn about the inhabitants of diverse microbiomes and their possible functions. Key
topics include the concerns with reproducibility and controls in microbiome research, the improvements in Oxford Nanopore long-read sequencing technology, and the role of the microbial rare biosphere.

Watch the Webinar

Welcome to our new colleague, Louiza Loizou

We are happy to have expanded our team with an excellent Finance Assistant!

Before joining FEMS, Louiza Loizou completed her accounting studies and alongside her current role she will work towards her ACCA qualification.

Louiza, we welcome you to our FEMS team!

Meet our Team

Listen to our first Microbes and Us podcast episode of 2022!

Sarah Wettstadt, Director of the MicroComms science communications business, joins host Joseph Shuttleworth to highlight some newly discovered bacteria from 2021 and what we can learn from them.

They also discuss her experience transitioning from academia into science communication and give tips on starting your own freelancer projects or business.

Listen to Episode 9

Poster & Oral Presentation Prize Winners sponsored by FEMS Journals

These past weeks, Pathogens & Disease awarded prizes to excellent PostDoc
talks at ToxoUK. You can read interviews with the winners below!

Francesca Torelli (best PostDoc talk at ToxoUk), “Targeted in vivo screens
identify GRA12 as the most important common virulence factor for Toxoplasma
survival”

Stephanie Nofal (runner-up best best PostDoc talk at ToxoUK), “A positive
feedback loop mediates crosstalk between calcium, cyclic nucleotide and lipid signalling in Toxoplasma gondii“

See the full list of Prize Winners here

2. The FEMS Journals

Easy submission of your bioRxiv preprints to FEMS journals

We’re always looking for new ways to make life easier for FEMS authors. From 2022 have integrated the preprint server bioRxiv with the submission platform of our journals FEMS Yeast Research and FEMS Microbes.

This means that authors who submit a preprint to bioRxiv will see the option to submit the same manuscript directly to these two FEMS journals. One click and the key manuscript information will populate in the journal submission site, saving authors time and effort.

Call for papers in FEMS journals:

• Emerging role of chromatin remodeling in the persistence and elimination of microbial pathogens • Extracellular Vesicles • Advances in the Study of Obligate Intracellular Bacterial Pathogens • Lex Scheffers memorial issue on Yeast Physiology and Metabolism • Making the Invisible Visible in STEMM • Bacterial Pathogenesis (BacPath) • Microbial Food and Feed Ingredients

Oxford University Press, the publishing partner of FEMS, has a growing number of
Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means authors from participating institutions from all
over the world can publish open access whereby the institution pays the charge.

Recently new agreements with Institutions from Australia and New Zealand (CAUL
affiliated) have been made and later this year funding will become available for
researchers at Polish Institutes (ICM consortium). You can find out if your institution is participating here.

microLife

The journal of the FEMS European Academy of Microbiology

As the journal of the European Academy of Microbiology (EAM), microLife is the platform for leading experts in microbiology, publishing outstanding papers of the highest standard, novelty, and significance. Submissions welcome:

Editors-in-Chief: Axel Brakhage, Carmen Buchrieser, Matthias Horn, and Paula Traktman

FEMS Microbes

Open science towards a sustainable world

FEMS Microbes is our community journal for sharing research findings, in particular for Early Career Scientists to read, publish, and contribute.

Submit your research now:

Editors-in-Chief: Jana Jass, Kimberly Kline, and Kathleen Scott

Akirin/Subolesin regulatory mechanisms at host/tick–pathogen interactions

Akirin/Subolesin regulatory proteins play a key role at the host/tick–pathogen interface in the regulation of different biological processes including immune response to pathogen infection.

José de la Fuente, Sara Artigas-Jerónimo, Margarita Villar

Read

Predicting daily COVID-19 case rates from SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations across a diversity of wastewater catchments

The authors estimate COVID-19 case rates directly from SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in domestic wastewater. They find this can be useful in locations with limited testing availability, testing disparities, or delays in individual COVID-19 testing programs.

Alessandro Zulli, Annabelle Pan, Stephen M Bart, Forrest W Crawford, Edward H Kaplan, Matthew Cartter, Albert I Ko, Marcela Sanchez, Cade Brown, Duncan Cozens, Doug E Brackney, Jordan Peccia

Read

FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Your natural research habitat

FEMS Microbiology Letters

Promoting new ideas

FEMS Microbiology Reviews

Outstanding reviews from leading experts

Temperature dependence of nitrate-reducing Fe(II) oxidation by Acidovorax strain BoFeN1 – evaluating the role of enzymatic vs. abiotic Fe(II) oxidation by nitrite

This study investigates chemical and microbially catalyzed Fe(II) oxidation across a range of temperatures to develop a quantitative description of enzymatic Fe(II) oxidation coupled to nitrate reduction within the environment.

Nicole Dopffel, James Jamieson, Casey Bryce, Prachi Joshi, Muammar Mansor, Adam Siade, Henning Prommer, Andreas Kappler

Read

Methane production potential of pulp mill sludges: microbial community and substrate constraints

Anaerobic digestion of 11 pulp and paper mill sludges reveals a wide range in methane production correlated with microbial diversity. A number of sludges innately produced substantial methane and may be targets for further modelling and larger scale testing of anaerobic digestion.

Kelly Chan-Yam, Torsten Meyer, J Ashley Scott, Nathan Basiliko

Read

The first three waves of the Covid-19 pandemic hint at a limited genetic repertoire for SARS-CoV-2

The genomic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 is the result of a relatively low level of spontaneous mutations introduced during viral replication. With millions of SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences now available, we can begin to assess the overall genetic repertoire of this virus.

Trudy M Wassenaar, Visanu Wanchai, Gregory Buzard, David W Ussery

Read

Pathogens and Disease

Next generation host pathogen research

FEMS Yeast Research

The yeast community journal

Out Now: Thematic Issue from Pathogens & Disease

Toxoplasma-proximal and distal control by GBPs in human macrophages

In human macrophages, guanylate binging protein 1, 2 and 5 (GBP1/2/5) control the growth of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, with solely GBP1 targeting the parasite vacuole for elimination.

Daniel Fisch, Barbara Clough, Rabia Khan, Lyn Healy, Eva-Maria Frickel

Read

What makes Komagataella phaffii non-conventional?

Non-conventional features render the yeast K. phaffii an attractive model organism and an efficient host for biotechnology applications.

Özge Ata, Burcu Gündüz Ergün, Patrick Fickers, Lina Heistinger, Diethard Mattanovich, Corinna Rebnegger, Brigitte Gasser

Read

Obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens

In this Thematic Issue, we compiled a collection of
review and primary research articles covering diverse facets of the biology of obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens, as well as methodological aspects
including disease modeling and advances in applying tractable genetic tools to the study of these fastidious and fascinating microbes.

Read the Thematic Issue

3. Policy Corner

Welcome to our new Policy corner were you can find our the latest from our connections and initiatives in the world of Science Policy.

Science|Business Bulletin No. 999 - 27 January 2022

Bringing together industry, research and policy. The quickening pace of scientific and technological discovery is re-shaping policies, markets and economies around the world.

Arm yourself with a
regular new Science|Business briefing.

Read more

4. Grants Corners

Members of FEMS Member Societies can apply for grants for research and training, or for support when organizing a scientific meeting, or attending a scientific meeting – including our Member Societies’ national and regional congresses.

Some grants are reserved for Early Career Scientists. Every year we use the income from the FEMS journals to support hundreds of grantees and enable experts to share ideas and promote excellence in science.

This time of year there are several grants awaiting applications! Make sure you don’t miss the deadlines for:

Meeting Attendance Grants (Deadline: 1 March 2022)

Meeting Attendance Grants Meeting Attendance Grants enable early career researchers to attend microbiology meetings worldwide to network, collaborate and keep abreast of new developments in their field.

As an increasing number of conferences, society meetings and congresses are moving into online events, FEMS has opened the Meeting Attendance Grants (MAG) to support both virtual and in-person meetings.

Support is limited to a maximum of € 600

Apply Now

Research and Training Grants (Deadline: 1 June 2022)

Research and Training Grants are meant to assist early career scientists in pursuing research and training at a European host institution in another country than their own country of residence.

Support is limited to a maximum of €4,000.

Apply Now

Meet FEMS Research and Training grantee Joris Alkemade

Research and Training Grants are meant to assist early career scientists in pursuing research and training at a European host institution in another country than their own country of residence.

Deadline for application: 1 June for projects that will start within a year from the following 1 September

Joris Alkemade: Research Institute of Organic Agriculture - Crop Sciences, Frick 5070, Switzerland

Host supervisor and host laboratory: Riccardo Baroncelli, Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Dates: 2 October 2021 to 12 December 2021

FEMS Member Society Membership: Royal Netherlands Society for Microbiology

‘‘My name is Joris Alkemade and I am from the Netherlands. I have always had an interest for plants and agriculture. After a year living in Ecuador with a family that owned a banana plantation I decided to study plant sciences at Wageningen University. During my Bachelor and Master I was mostly interested in plant pathology and I was involved in projects studying fusarium wilt in Banana, potato cyst nematodes and verticillium wilt in Tomato and its interaction with the soil microbiome.

After my studies I started a PhD at the institute for organic agriculture (FiBL) in
Switzerland and Hohenheim University in Germany to study anthracnose disease (Colletotrichum lupini) on white lupin. There I developed a disease resistance protocol, found a candidate resistance gene in white lupin and characterized a worldwide collection of C. lupini isolates to get insight in the current lupin anthracnose pandemic. The goal of the FEMS research visit to the University of Bologna was to improve our understanding of C. lupini by performing comparative genomics. In the future I hope to continue working in the interesting field of plant pathology and
contribute to a more sustainable form of agriculture.

For my FEMS Research and Training visit I went to the plant pathology lab of the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences of the University of Bologna. Here I worked together with Riccardo Baroncelli who was recently appointed associate professor of plant pathology. The aim of the research was to improve our understanding of the notorious lupin pathogen Colletotrichum lupini. We had access to a high resolution 3D-RADseq dataset of a global collection of 76 C. lupini isolates and 36 genomes of C. lupini and closely related Colletotrichum species. We used the 3DRADseq dataset to perform phylogenetic analysis and asses the population structure. The whole genome sequences were assembled and checked for completeness. Together with available virulence data on white and Andean lupin we aim to further improve our understanding on C. lupini population dynamics and to identify genomic regions potentially involved in pathogenicity, virulence and host-speciation. The people in the lab were very welcoming and I had great time in
the city of Bologna! To visit another lab that is working on subject similar to my PhD subject and get more experience in population genomics.I wanted to get more experience in analyzing big genomic datasets.

With help from my host supervisor I succeeded but I still want to learn more. The grant gave me the opportunity to visit another lab in a different city. This gave me a lot of experience in my research field but also let me experience the Italian lifestyle.’’

FEMS Grants

5. Opportunities

Microbiology Society Annual Conference 2022

The Microbiology Society is returning to Belfast and its International Convention Centre for the organisation’s flagship meeting. This is going to take place between 4-7 April 2022.

The Annual Conference attracts over 1,600 people each year, making it the UK’s largest annual gathering of microbiologists. The Conference covers the breadth of current microbiological research and its oral abstracts and posters reflect this comprehensive scientific programme.

More info

Job of the Month

The Institut Pasteur is looking for a new Director: France

Final application date: September 2022

Institute: Institut Pasteur, Paris

The Search Committee for Director of the Institut Pasteur invites expressions of interest from potential candidates for the position of Director of the institute.

The Director should be a scientific personality with a world-class reputation. She/he will provide the executive leadership for the institute. He/she will develop an ambitious and strategic vision for the scientific activities to take the Institut Pasteur into the 21st century. She/he will be responsible for the management of the institute’s scientific mission management, the successful translation of basic science into improvement of human health; for fund-raising and diversification of resources; for overall management of the institute; and for forging and overseeing university and industrial partnerships. The Director is also responsible for developing and reinforcing the cooperation among the 33 members comprising its unique international network. Both French and English language skills are required. The Institut Pasteur is committed to internationality, diversity and equality, and encourages applications from women and minorities. The starting date of the position is January 2024.

Find out more

Opportunity Board Hot Links

Click on the linked tiles below to take you to these sections:

6. Extras

Submit your Society’s News and Opportunities to the FEMS Network

If you are a member of one of our Member Societies, we would love to hear from you so we can spread the news of your society’s activities, developments, and initiatives to the microbiology community. Just fill in the following news submission form so we can communicate your news:

News Submission Form

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, where you can also
find events and funding sponsored by FEMS and from organizations throughout the microbiology community. To promote your event, job, funding or interesting projects on our website to the wider microbiology community on our Opportunities Board, please complete our opportunities
form:

Opportunity Submission Form

Our communications network consists of tens of thousands of international and European microbiologists who we engage with our newsletters, social media, and website

Submit News

News from
Microbiology Society: Founding Journal Turns 75 and Announces Open Access Transformation

The Microbiology Society’s first journal, Microbiology, turns 75 this year, publishing advances in fundamental and applied research since 1947.

The journal today reflects the diversity and
importance of microbiology in addressing current global challenges, such as food security,
environmental sustainability, and health.

As the journal hits this significant milestone, we are pleased to announce that Microbiology will be
the first of our portfolio to transition from a hybrid model to fully Open Access in 2023, a change
which will positively impact our community.
Publishing for the community: Celebrate our past, influence our Open Access future

Watch the Video

Does the Omicron variant force us to start all over again?

As a new variant of concern, Omicron joins the already established group of Delta, Alpha, Beta and Gamma of SARS-CoV-2 mutants.

These mutants – or variants – show increases in transmissibility or virulence, changes in epidemiology or
decreases in the effectiveness of public health and social measures.

In the section
#QuarantineDiary, Sarah Wettstadt explains for the #FEMSmicroBlog what is
currently known about the new variant and why experts push for booster
vaccinations.

Read More

That's all from us at FEMS for the moment! We will write again in a month with all the latest news, events, research, grants info, opportunities, and more...

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