At the Frontier of Research into Microbial Behaviors in Complex Communities and Host Environments

The Gordon Conference on Microbial Adhesion and Signal Transduction focuses on microbial adherence and how microbial interactions drive biological processes through signal transduction cascades. Themes covered in the conference include (but are not limited to) bacterial-bacterial interactions and communication, bacterial and single cell eukaryote interactions (both symbiotic and pathogenic) with plant, animal, and human hosts, gene regulation and regulatory networks, cell signaling and information processing, cell structures and assembly, cell biology, and microbial evolution. The 2017 meeting aims to particularly highlight new research on metabolite signaling and response by host and pathogen, heterogeneity in niches and phenotypes, and new methods and applications. The first topic reflects an emerging appreciation of the importance of metabolites derived from both host tissues and members of the microbiome as major signaling molecules. The second topic has emerged from recent advances in imaging that include single cell methods, novel reporters and high resolution mapping of host tissues to reveal heterogeneity within bacterial populations that have relevance for pathogenicity and persistence. The last topic recognizes the role of new methodologies (e.g. gene editing, super resolution microscopy, synthetic biology) in driving advances in our field. Speakers will represent researchers using a diversity of approaches to study microbial adherence and signal transduction including bacterial genetics, biochemistry, structural biology, evolutionary biology, cell biology, infection biology, imaging, biophysical analysis of cells and surfaces, material science and mathematical modeling. This diversity, coupled with the intimate setting provided by the GRC, makes an ideal venue for interaction between scientists trained in widely different fields and serves to promote interdisciplinary collaborations.