Genomes of Microbiomes will provide a forum for discussion of the impact of MAGs, including how they should be incorporated into public databases, metagenomics advances in general, and the contributions technologies are making toward more readily achieving complete microbial genome sequence assemblies.
Join us to:
This focused meeting will be an excellent opportunity for those working in the field to network and to build upon and establish collaborations.
Organising committee:
Key topics:
As part of the preparations for returning to delivering in-person events, Microbiology Society Council members and members of the Virus Division have worked with Society staff to develop a framework of mitigations for the Society to apply to all of its events throughout 2022, in order to ensure that these are as COVID-secure as possible.
Implementation of this framework is a shared responsibility; shared between the Society, the venues we use for our events, and all potential attendees. Attendance at any of our events is a personal choice, but it will be incumbent on all of us to deliver these mitigations in order for us to keep all delegates and staff as safe as we can.
The framework covers the following five areas.
The following mitigations will be implemented for all those attending a Focused Meeting in 2022. The Society staff will continue to consult with the organising committee in the lead up to the event and these mitigations will be kept under review and may be amended to ensure they remain appropriate as circumstances change.
Mitigation area
Vaccines
All attendees are required to be fully vaccinated with an approved vaccine against COVID-19 to attend a Focused Meeting in 2022. For many individuals, this will mean a primary course and booster vaccine, and with the booster administered at least 14 days before the meeting. However, if you do not meet this requirement or if you have any concerns around your vaccination status, please get in touch with us to discuss it further by emailing [email protected]
You can find further information on vaccines on the World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 vaccine advice page, which includes a list of vaccines that have been approved for use against COVID-19.
Ventilation
Best efforts will be made to promote the circulation of fresh air into each Focused Meeting venue. This will include use of air conditioning, if available at the meeting venue, or opening of doors and windows during appropriate intervals in the event programme if possible.
Masks
FFP3 masks will be provided to all individuals attending a Focused Meeting in 2022 and everyone will be expected to wear them inside the meeting venue, except when eating or drinking and except for those that have medical exemptions.
Testing
Attendees will be provided with LFT devices and are expected to test themselves daily before entering the meeting venue.
Spacing
All attendees are reminded to adhere to social distancing where possible, particularly during communal activities such as lunch and poster sessions.
Further information will be announced in the build up to the meeting on our social media channels and you can follow us on Twitter @MicrobioSoc using the hashtag #GenomesMicrobiome22
The programme of invited speakers will be announced in due course.
Alex Almeida is an MRC Career Development Fellow at the University of Cambridge, whose research is focused on understanding the role that the hidden, uncultured microbiome plays in human health and disease.
Throughout his research career, Alex has specialized in the development and application of bioinformatics and genomic approaches to make biological discoveries with relevance to human health. He obtained his PhD in Microbiology at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, studying the opportunistic pathogen group B Streptococcus to identify genomic traits linked to host adaptation (Almeida et al. Environ. Microbiol. 2016), virulence and pathogenicity (Almeida et al. J. Bacteriol. 2015 and Almeida et al. mSystems 2017). Using comparative genomics methods, he was able to identify candidate genes and single nucleotide variants linked with disease onset and progression (Almeida et al. mSystems 2017).
After his PhD, he was awarded an EBI-Sanger Postdoctoral (ESPOD) Fellowship and relocated to Cambridge to expand his research to metagenomic studies of the human gut microbiome. Using large-scale computational methods, his work contributed to the discovery of thousands of uncultivated bacterial species in the human gut microbiome, more than tripling the number of gut-associated species previously known (Almeida et al. Nature 2019 and Almeida et al. Nat. Biotechnol. 2021). He has also been involved in a number of national and international collaborative projects, one of which led to the discovery of over 140,000 distinct viruses in the human gut microbiome, of which 50% were unknown before (Camarillo-Guerrero et al. Cell 2021).
Dr Evelien Adriaenssens is a group leader at the Quadram Institute Bioscience, where she specialises in bacteriophage biology and viromics (viral metagenomics). Her group works on understanding the role of bacteriophages in establishing and maintaining a healthy gut microbiome, how we can use phages to improve health across life and the use of phages to combat antimicrobial resistance. She is the Chair of the Bacterial Viruses Subcommittee of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.
Dr Rebecca Ansorge is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Quadram Institute Bioscience in the group of Dr Falk Hildebrand and is a member of the ‘Gut Microbes and Health’ Institute Strategic Programme. She is investigating the human gut microbiome in health and disease with a focus on inflammatory bowel disease. Using strain-resolved metagenomics approaches, she is studying species- and strain-level variation and microbial pangenome diversity in the human microbiome.
Twitter: @rebecca_ansorge
Professor Lesley Hoyles is a gut microbiologist and bioinformatician. She combines in vitro and in vivo microbiology and computational approaches to understand how members of the gut microbiota function and influence human health and disease. Using integrated systems-level approaches, Professor Hoyles has defined the contribution of the microbiome and its metabolites to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, metabolic retroconversion and integrity of the blood-brain barrier.
Dr Rasmus Kirkegaard is a staff scientist at the Center for Microbial Communities at Aalborg University, Denmark, in the group of Mads Albertsen. He is working on the recovery of high quality genomes from the microbial communities of many complex systems using nanopore based long read DNA sequencing. He has been using long read sequencing for genome reconstruction since 2015 as one of the lucky participants of the MInION Access Programme launched by Oxford Nanopore Technologies.
Dr Yan Shao is a research staff scientist in the Host-Microbiota Interactions Laboratory led by Dr Trevor Lawley at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Yan was trained as a biologist at Imperial College London, before receiving graduate training in Genomics and Microbiology at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, where he has specialised in microbiome research using both computational and experimental approaches. During his PhD study in the Lawley group, Yan led the investigation of the Baby Biome Study, a UK birth cohort focusing on the early-life dynamics in the human gut microbiota, through high-throughput next-generation sequencing and bacterial culturing. His current research interests focus on identifying predictive microbiome markers and bacteriotherapy candidates for childhood health and diseases, by leveraging large-scale metagenomic, long-read sequencing and microbiological data of infant microbiome datasets across the globe.
Becky Smith is a PhD student at the Roslin Institute in the group of Mick Watson, whose research focusses primarily on the analysis of rumen metagenomic data. She is investigating the ways in which metagenomic data can improve our understanding of microbiomes. In particular, she is interested in exploring ways to better study environments that have not been well characterised. Her recent work focusses on assessing the accuracy of taxonomic classification of metagenomic data, and how metagenome-assembled-genomes have the potential to represent uncultivated microbes in reference databases. Using bioinformatics approaches she hopes to advance our understanding of how the methods we use, work for us.
Delegate registration is now closed. Registration for speakers and exhibitors will remain open.
You can register to the delegate wait list below:
Microbiology Society members get heavily subsidised registration fees for focused meetings, annual conference and other society events. Join now to enjoy these discounts and many other opportunities that are designed for microbiologists at all stages of their career.
| Full rate | |
| Student member | £240 |
| Concessionary member | £270 |
| Full member | £375 |
| Non-member | £475 |
Upon registration you should receive an automated confirmation email. Please contact [email protected] if after 24 hours this has not been received.
All registration fees must be paid in full before arrival at the conference. Any outstanding registration fees must be paid before admittance will be granted to the conference.
We are aware of ongoing uncertainty around event attendance as the pandemic continues. In order to give delegates the most confidence and flexibility, we will refund all registration fees in full if you cancel your booking, for whatever reason, at any time in the lead up to the event. If you wish to cancel your booking and request a refund before the event, please email [email protected]
As part of the preparations for returning to delivering in-person events, Microbiology Society Council members and members of the Virus Division have worked with Society staff to develop a framework of mitigations for the Society to apply to all of its events throughout 2022, in order to ensure that these are as COVID-secure as possible.
Implementation of this framework is a shared responsibility; shared between the Society, the venues we use for our events, and all potential attendees. Attendance at any of our events is a personal choice, but it will be incumbent on all of us to deliver these mitigations in order for us to keep all delegates and staff as safe as we can.
The framework covers the following five areas.
The following mitigations will be implemented for all those attending a Focused Meeting in 2022. The Society staff will continue to consult with the organising committee in the lead up to the event and these mitigations will be kept under review and may be amended to ensure they remain appropriate as circumstances change.
Mitigation area
Vaccines
All attendees are required to be fully vaccinated with an approved vaccine against COVID-19 to attend a Focused Meeting in 2022. For many individuals, this will mean a primary course and booster vaccine, and with the booster administered at least 14 days before the meeting. However, if you do not meet this requirement or if you have any concerns around your vaccination status, please get in touch with us to discuss it further by emailing [email protected]
You can find further information on vaccines on the World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 vaccine advice page, which includes a list of vaccines that have been approved for use against COVID-19.
Ventilation
Best efforts will be made to promote the circulation of fresh air into each Focused Meeting venue. This will include use of air conditioning, if available at the meeting venue, or opening of doors and windows during appropriate intervals in the event programme if possible.
Masks
FFP3 masks will be provided to all individuals attending a Focused Meeting in 2022 and everyone will be expected to wear them inside the meeting venue, except when eating or drinking and except for those that have medical exemptions.
Testing
Attendees will be provided with LFT devices and are expected to test themselves daily before entering the meeting venue.
Spacing
All attendees are reminded to adhere to social distancing where possible, particularly during communal activities such as lunch and poster sessions.
Abstract submissions for this meeting are now closed.
Genomes of Microbiomes poster abstract book
Genomes of Microbiomes oral abstract book
How to give an oral presentation
Those who are presenting a poster must ensure the work is presented as below. Incorrectly formatted posters might not be displayed.
We have produced a guide on how to give a poster presentation, which can be downloaded below:
How to give a poster presentation
Please can those selected for a flash poster presentation check your email inboxes for instructions. For more information please contact [email protected].
Microbial Genomics is pleased to provide the Outstanding Science Prize to a scientific poster at the ‘Genomes of Microbiomes’ meeting. The winner, selected by members of the organising committee, will win a cash prize and be featured on the Microbe Post. All posters displayed at the meeting are automatically entered for the prize.
The meeting will take place in Edgbaston Park Hotel and Conference Centre. It is the University of Birmingham’s hotel, and is part of the University of Birmingham Group.
The University of Birmingham is a World Top 100 institution. The hotel allows the University to host major international conferences across a range of disciplines.
Opened in 2018, Edgbaston Park Hotel features a contemporary building housing 172 bedrooms, a restaurant, a bar and a variety of meeting facilities, all in a peaceful leafy spot on campus.
You can find the venue’s accessibility statement here.
Rail Network - Industrial action
Please note that industrial action will be taking place on Thursday 15 and Saturday 17 September, with virtually all train services being cancelled on these days and ongoing disruption likely on Friday 16 September. Delegates are advised to either travel a day before the meeting, to drive or look into alternative routes via different modes of public transport.
Rail: As you exit University Railway Station, turn left towards the University of Birmingham’s campus. Continue to follow the road (Westgate) down the hill without crossing over; you will walk past some car parks, which are now boarded up.
At the end of this road, turn left onto Ring Road North and walk up the hill, passing behind the Main Library and Teaching and Learning building.
At the top of the road, turn right onto Pritchatts Road and cross at the pedestrian crossing. Continue walking on Pritchatts Road until you see the entrance of the multi-storey North East Car Park. Turn left here and walk past the Centre for Human Brain Health (CHBH). Edgbaston Park Hotel will be on your left.
Coach
Birmingham is well connected with coach and bus services from other major cities and towns throughout the UK. The closest bus station to Edgbaston Park Hotel and Conference Centre is Westmere.
Visit the National Express website to book coach tickets.
Car
Approaching from the north west or south east along the M6:
Leave at Junction 6 (signposted Birmingham Central) to join the A38 (M). Continue on the A48, then take the B4127. Turn left onto Wheeley’s Lane, then continue straight until you reach the hotel (on your right).
Approaching from the M42 north:
Leave at Junction 8 to join the M6 northbound and follow the instructions above.
Approaching from the south west:
Leave the M5 at Junction 4 signposted Birmingham SW to join the A38.
Approaching from the M40:
From Junction 3A, head west on the M42. At Junction 3 take the A435 exit (Birmingham South).
Taxi
There are taxi ranks at New Street Station and throughout the city centre. If you hail a cab, you’ll need to pay the driver in cash. The Uber and Ola apps are also available in Birmingham.
The journey to the hotel from the city centre takes around 15 minutes, depending on traffic.
Air
Birmingham International Airport is just a 25-minute drive away. Alternatively, take a train from the airport’s own station and travel to University station, changing at Birmingham New Street.
Carbon footprint offsetting
Delegate travel is the biggest contributor to the carbon emissions involved with Focused Meetings, we would therefore like to encourage all delegates to offset their carbon footprint.
A carbon offset is a way to compensate for your emissions by funding an equivalent carbon dioxide saving elsewhere.
You can calculate and offset your carbon footprint from travelling to the meeting by using this carbon calculator, this supports international projects and sustainable development worldwide.
Please contact [email protected] to enquire about exhibition and sponsorship opportunities.
Genomes of Microbiomes Invitation to Exhibit.pdf
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Society Conference Grants are available to support those wishing to attend this meeting. Applications for this scheme are now closed. Further information is available on the Society Conference Grants page.
We are aware of ongoing uncertainty around event attendance as the pandemic continues. To find out more about our grant refund policies, please visit our Grant Rules page.
Members who are ineligible for the Society Conference Grant should apply to the Travel Grant scheme for support. Applications for events taking place between 1 July–30 September 2022 will open at the end of April and close on 1 June 2022.
Please contact [email protected] for any questions.