- Tuesday 19 September
9:30: MALDI-TOF training
13:00: Welcome & ECCO registration
14:00: Keynote lectures
16:30: Opening Expo 40 years BCCM & networking reception
19:00: Walking buffet & animation
- Wednesday 20 September
8:30: ECCO registration
9:00: Welcome address
9:15: Session 1 – Microbes in Health & Disease
Chair: Rudi Beyaert & Wouter De Schamphelaire
Keynote speaker: Kim De Paepe (Ghent University, Belgium): “In vitro technology to study live
biotherapeutics and enteropathogens in the human gut“
Nicolas Bruffaerts (Sciensano, Belgium): “Towards standardization of next-generation real-time bioaerosol monitors“
Selected short talks
10:30: Break
11:00: Session 2 – Microbes in Health & Disease
Chair: Rudi Beyaert & Wouter De Schamphelaire
Keynote speaker: Marie Joossens (Ghent University, Belgium): “The oral cavity: a mouthful of
opportunities“
Dirk Roymans (KULeuven, Belgium): “The VirusBank Platform“
Selected short talks
12:30: Lunch
13:15: Session 3 – Microbes in Food and Agriculture
Chair: Stéphane Declerck & Gerard Verkleij
Keynote speaker: Marc Ongena (TERRA): “Biocontrol of plant pathogens combining AMF and
bacteria“
Felix Richter (Imperial college London): “Microfluids to study microorganisms at the cellular level“
Selected short talks
14:45: Break
15:15: Session 4 – Microbes in Food and Agriculture
Chair: Stéphane Declerck & Gerard Verkleij
Keynote speaker: Jos Houbraken (Westerdijk Institute): “Heterogeneity in food spoilage fungi”
Heide-Marie Daniel (Université catholique de Louvain): “Yeasts in cocoa, coffee and sourdough“
Selected short talks
16:30: End of session
17:30: Guided visit Chocolate museum
- Thursday 21 September
9:00: Session 5 – Microorganisms in ecological applications
Chair: Annick Wilmotte & Cristina Varese
Keynote speaker : Beatriz Roncero Ramos (University of Seville, Spain): “Understanding the
mechanisms of stress resistance to optimize the application of cyanobacteria for soil restoration“
Other speaker to be confirmed
Selected short talks
10:30: Break
11:00: Session 6 – Microorganisms in ecological applications
Chair: Annick Wilmotte & Cristina Varese
Keynote speaker : Felice Mastroleo (SCK-CEN): “Running a photobioreactor in space for the production of oxygen and edible ‘spirulina’ biomass“
Jay Sankar Seelam (Ghent University): “Diversifying application of recycled nutrients derived from anaerobic digestion for sustainable algal protein farming“
Selected short talks
12:30: Lunch
13:15: Session 7 – Taxonomy, Phylogeny, Phylogenomics, Phylodynamics: new techniques and approaches
Chair: Leen Rigouts and Peter Vandamme
Keynote speaker: Connor Meehan (Nottingham University, UK): “Using genomes for the classification and tracking of mycobacteria”
Frederik Baert (Sciensano, Belgium: “Dermatophytes fungi: Phylogenomics of the Trichophyton
mentagrophytes species complex“
Selected short talks
14:45: Break
15:15: Session 8 – Data management, infrastructures
Chair: Philippe Desmeth & Ayuen Lual
Keynote speaker: Juncai Ma (WDCM): “WDCM services as an information infrastructure for the exploration and utilization of microbial strains preserved worldwide”
Vincent Robert (BioAware): “The beauty of data and databasing“
Luc Cornet (University of Liège, Belgium): “The GEN-ERA toolbox: unified and reproducible workflows for research in microbial genomics“
16:30: IS_MIRRI21: restricted to project partners
18:00: End of session
19:00: Conference dinner
- Friday 22 September
9:00: Session 9 – Science policy, career skills, valorization of collections
Chair: Philippe Desmeth & Raquel Hurtado-Ortiz
Keynote speaker: Daniela Ruffell (FEBS Letters): “How to write an attractive review article“
Aurora Zuzuarregui (University of Valencia): “Impacts of the exchange of strains between culture collections”
Nelson Lima (University of Minho): “Policy aspects related to EU Research Infrastructures”
10:30: Break
11:00: ECCO Annual General Meeting: restricted to ECCO members and candidate members
13:00: Closing lunch