The Society of Dairy Technology has "highly recommended" the recent book on Probiotics and Prebiotics, edited by Gerald W. Tannock and published by Caister Academic Press. In a recent review by Professor V. M. Marshall of the University of Huddersfield, UK, the book was described as "an excellent and authoritative resource" and "highly recommended" to post-graduate research students and scientists involved in this field "because of the wealth of information provided". The review is published in the February 2007 issue of the International Journal of Dairy Technology (published by Blackwell on behalf of the The Society of Dairy Technology).

For full details of this book please visit Probiotics and Prebiotics: Scientific Aspects

Our list of Conference List has been updated today to include the American Society for Microbiology meetings. For full details please visit:
Microbiology Conferences and Meetings

Any conference missing from this list please send details

19-20 April 2007. The European Symposium on Waterborne Pathogens in Surface and Drinking Waters
Luxembourg.

This symposium will address the current and future research concerning waterborne pathogens. The main aim of the symposium is to bring together the different actors concerned by the microbiological quality of drinking and recreational waters: researchers, regulators, water resource and industry managers. The program will include lecture and poster sessions covering outputs of recent researches or advances on regulation issues. Each of the seven thematic sessions will begin with an invited lecture given by prominent specialists.

The organising committee:
Dr Henry-Michel Cauchie, CRP-GL, Luxembourg (Chairman)
Prof. Lucien Hoffmann, CRP-GL, Luxembourg
Dr Christophe Gantzer, University Henri Poincaré, Nancy, France
Dr Sylvain Skraber, CRP-GL, Luxembourg
Dr Raphaël Willame, CRP-GL, Luxembourg
Mr Karim Helmi, CRP-GL, Luxembourg
Dr Jean-Paul Lickes, Water Management Agency, Luxembourg

and the scientific committee:
Prof. Wim Admiraal, coordinator of the EU-FP5 BIOFILMS project
Prof. Jean-Claude Block, coordinator of the EU-FP5 SAFER project
Dr Jan Cortvriend, Drinking Water Directive Unit, DG Environment, European Commission
Dr Manfred Hoefle, coordinator of the EU-FP5 AQUA-CHIP project
Dr Peter Wyn-Jones, coordinator of the EU-FP6 VIROBATHE project
Dr Gertjan Medema, coordinator of the EU-FP5 MICRORISK project
Dr Wido Schmidt, coordinator of the EU-FP5 TOXIC project
Dr Theo van den Hoven, coordinator of the EU-FP5 WEKNOW project and coordinator of the EU-FP6 TECHNEAU project

Current Conferences

Bacteriophage: Genetics and Molecular Biology
Edited by: Stephen McGrath and Douwe van Sinderen
Publisher: Caister Academic Press
ISBN: 978-1-904455-14-1
Price: £150 or $300
Expected publication date: July 2007

Bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) are fascinating organisms that have played and continue to play a key role in bacterial genetics and molecular biology. Phage can confer key phenotypes on their host, for example converting a non-pathogenic strain into a pathogen, and they play a key role in regulating bacterial populations in all sorts of environments. The phage-bacterium relationship varies enormously: from the simple predator-prey model to a complex, almost symbiotic relationship that promotes the survival and evolutionary success of both. While infection of bacteria used in the fermentation industry can be very problematic and result in financial losses, in other senarios phage infection of bacteria can be exploited for industrial and/or medical applications. In fact interest in phage and phage gene products as potential therapeutic agents is increasing rapidly and is likely to have a profound impact on the pharmaceutical industry and biotechnology in general over the coming years. One potential application isthe use of phage to combat the growing menace of antibiotic-resistant infections.

Written by eminent international researchers actively involved in the disparate areas of bacteriophage research this book focuses on the current rapid developments in this exciting field. The book opens with an excellent chapter that provides a broad overview of the topics and also highlights the multifaceted nature of bacteriophage research. This is followed by a series of reviews that focus on the current most cutting-edge topics including bioinformatics and genomics, phage in the environment, bacteriophage in medicine, transfer of phage DNA to the host, contribution to host phenotype and much more.


Further details

We have just heard that the following two books have been delivered from the printers to the various distributors and are available now.

DNA Microarrays: Current Applications
Publisher: Horizon Bioscience
Editor: Emanuele de Rinaldis and Armin Lahm
Publication date: January 2007
ISBN: 978-1-904933-25-0
Price: GB £90 or US $180 (hardback).
Pages: xii + 176 (+ 9 colour plates)

Further details

Salmonella: Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis
Publisher: Horizon Bioscience
Editor: Mikael Rhen, Duncan Maskell, Pietro Mastroeni and John Threlfall
Publication date: February 2007
ISBN: 978-1-904933-26-7
Price: GB £99 or US $198 (hardback).
Pages: x + 194
Further details

27-29 January 2008. International Conference on Opportunistic Pathogens in AIDS
New Dehli, India.

The first International Conference on Opportunistic Pathogens in AIDS was held from March 27-29, 2006 in which more than 200 delegates from various parts of the world participated. Encouraged with the success of the first conference, the second international conference is planned for July 2008 to understand various advances in HIV and associated opportunistic infectious diseases.

AIDS Vaccine Development: Challenges and Opportunities New book available now!

Bacillus subtilis is one of the best understood prokaryotes in terms of molecular biology and cell biology. Its superb genetic amenability and relatively large size have provided powerful tools to investigate a bacterium in all possible aspects. Recent improvements in technology have provided novel and amazing insights into the dynamic structure of this single cell organism. The organism is a model for differentiation, gene/protein regulation and cell cycle events in bacteria.

This book presents an overview of the most recent exciting new research fields and provides a picture of the major cytological aspects of a model bacterium. The authors present the most recent knowledge on topics such as the replication and segregation of the chromosome, cell division, replication and growth, the cell cycle, transcription, translation, regulation, the actin cyctoskeleton, the cell membrane and cell wall, biofilm formation and sporulation. Also covered are DNA repair, the regulation of transcription through RNA molecules, and the regulation of protein activity through proteolysis. The authors seamlessly merge the fields of bacterial cell biology and molecular biology to provide an integral view of the bacterial cell, providing an understanding of the way a bacterial cell functions as a whole entity and in 3D, i.e. how it is spatially organized, and even how bacterial cells communicate with each other, or give their life for the sake of the whole community.

An essential book for anyone interested in Bacillus, cell biology or bacterial genetics and molecular biology.


For full details please visit Bacillus: Cellular and Molecular Biology

Cited 19 times.
Curr. Issues Mol. Biol. (2005) 7: 23-38
The Genome of Model Malaria Parasites, and Comparative Genomics
Jane Carlton, Joana Silva and Neil Hall

The field of comparative genomics of malaria parasites has recently come of age with the completion of the whole genome sequences of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and a rodent malaria model, Plasmodium yoelii yoelii. With several other genome sequencing projects of different model and human malaria parasite species underway, comparing genomes from multiple species has necessitated the development of improved informatics tools and analyses. Results from initial comparative analyses reveal striking conservation of gene synteny between malaria species within conserved chromosome cores, in contrast to reduced homology within subtelomeric regions, in line with previous findings on a smaller scale. Genes that elicit a host immune response are frequently found to be species-specific, although a large variant multigene family is common to many rodent malaria species and Plasmodium vivax. Sequence alignment of syntenic regions from multiple species has revealed the similarity between species in coding regions to be high relative to non-coding regions, and phylogenetic footprinting studies promise to reveal conserved motifs in the latter. Comparison of non-synonymous substitution rates between orthologous genes is proving a powerful technique for identifying genes under selection pressure, and may be useful for vaccine design. This is a stimulating time for comparative genomics of model and human malaria parasites, which promises to produce useful results for the development of antimalarial drugs and vaccines.

Access full article       Curr. Issues Mol. Biol.

For the 2008 list please visit Microbiology Conferences

11 January 2007. Food and Health conference organized by the Society for Applied Microbiology
Carlton House Terrace, London.

27 February - 2 March 2007. ASM 5th Biodefense and Emerging Disease Research Meeting
Washington, DC, USA.

3-6 March 2007. IX International Symposium on Respiratory Viral Infections
Mandarin Oriental Excelsior Hotel,Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.

25-29 March 2007. Fourth ASM Conference on Biofilms.
Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

26-29 March 2007. Society for General Microbiology 160th Meeting.
University of Manchester, UK.

1-4 April 2007. Annual Conference of the Association for General and Applied Microbiology
Osnabrück (Germany).

19-20 April 2007. Biofilm: A System Microbiology Analysis
University of Limerick, Ireland.

19-20 April 2007. The European Symposium on Waterborne Pathogens in Surface and Drinking Waters
Luxembourg.

30 April-2 May 2007. Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) - Tenth Annual Conference on Vaccine Research
Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

30 April-3 May 2007. Second ASM Conference on Integrating Metabolism and Genomics (IMAGE2)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

8-14 May 2007. Wellcome Trust Advanced Course: Molecular Basis of Bacterial Infection - Basic and Applied Research Approaches
Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, UK.

21-25 May 2007. ASM 107th General Meeting
Toronto, Canada.

30 May - 1 June 2007. Society for General Microbiology / French Microbiology Society joint meeting
Nantes, France.

23-27 June 2007. 9th Symposium on Bacterial Genetics and Ecology
Wernigerode, Germany.

24-27 June 2007. Second ASM Conference on Pathogenomics
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

23 June-1 July 2007. Summer school on Microbial Genomics and Secondary Metabolites, organised by John Innes Centre and Institute Rudjer Boskovic
MedILS, Split, Croatia.

25-27 June 2007. Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) - Annual Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance
Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

2-5 July 2007. Microbiology of Fresh Produce conference organized by the Society for Applied Microbiology
Park Plaza Hotel, Cardiff, Wales.

14-18 July 2007. American Society for Virology 26th Annual Scientific Meeting
Corvallis, Oregon, USA.

22 to 25 July 2007. 4th IAS COnference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention
Sydney, Australia.

8-10 August 2007. Pattern Recognition Receptors in Human Disease
Queen's College, University of Cambridge, UK.

26-30 August 2007. ASM Conference on Pseudomonas 2007
Seattle, Washington, USA.

30-31 August 2007. Microbial Functions in Response to the Environment
Queen's University of Belfast, Ireland.

1-5 September 2007. Third European Congress of Virology
Nürnberg, Germany.

3-6 September 2007. Society for General Microbiology 161th Meeting.
University of Manchester, UK.

9-13 September 2007. 14th International Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus & Related Viruses
University of Edinburgh, UK.

16-19 September 2007. Virus molecular interactions: therapeutic targets - a Joint Royal Society of Chemistry/Biochemical Society Focused Meeting
University of Oxford, UK.

17-20 September 2007. ASM 47th ICAAC Meeting (Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy)
Chicago, IL, USA.

7-10 October 2007. Third ASM Conference on Cell-Cell Communication in Bacteria (CCCB)
Austin, Texas, USA.

28 - 30 November 2007. 14th Conference of the Federation of Infection Societies
Cardiff, UK.

28 November - 1 December 2007. II International Conference on Environmental, Industrial and Applied Microbiology (BioMicroWorld2007)
Seville, Spain.


For the 2008 list please visit Microbiology Conferences