Clostridia: from old diseases to new threats
October 5 - 9, 2008. Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland
Basic science meets infectious diseases. The fourth Conference on New Frontiers in Microbiology and Infection jointly organized by the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) and ESCMID.

Lectures include:
* The discovery of Clostridium and its clinical impact. An insight in the history of medicine
* Basis of the mode of action of clostridial toxins
* Insights into the mechanism of botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) receptor binding and substrate cleavage from a structural perspective
* C. perfringens epsilon-toxin
* Comparative genomics of clostridia and pathogenic properties
* Clostridium difficile: an overview of the changes in our understanding the organism over the last 30 years
* C. difficile: the wider perspective (humans, animals, environment)
* Clostridium difficile: an overview of the disease, host defences, risk factors and changing host susceptibility
* Clinical spectrum of Clostridium difficile Infection (CDI) and the emergence of hypervirulent strains
* Clostridial infections in the immunocompromised host
* Emerging clostridial infections in USA
* Clostridia in cancer therapy
* Toll-like receptors and intestinal inflammation

Suggested further reading: Clostridia: Molecular Biology in the Post-genomic Era

Labels: clostridia, clostridium, conference, microbiology conference