10 | JOHN INNES CENTRE /RUĐER BOŠKOVIĆ INSTITUTE IN APPLIED MOLECULAR MICROBIOLOGY

Summer schools in Applied Molecular Microbiology are intended primarily for scientists at post-graduate and early post-doctoral level, or early career industrial scientists, but some junior faculty may also qualify. Over the years, these week-long courses have established a reputation for the quality of the faculty and participants, and a high degree of productive interaction.

The schools focus on the continuing interest in microbial metabolites that has resulted from the sequencing of the genomes of small molecule-producing microorganisms, coupled with the advances in sequencing technology, bioinformatics and chemical analysis. Ecological developments highlighting the wide range of roles for small molecules in microbial communities are also covered, as is the evolution of biosynthetic gene clusters and pathways.  The course brings together young scientists from around the world with diverse backgrounds, including molecular microbiology, chemistry, microbial ecology and bioinformatics, to share information that can lead to inter-disciplinary approaches to understanding and exploiting microbial metabolite production.  The summer school will include hands-on computational analysis of natural product gene clusters as well as small group discussions on topics chosen by the participants.

Teaching Faculty:

• Greg Challis, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK & Monash University, Australia
• Marie Elliot, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
• Matt Hutchings, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK
• Paul Jensen, Scripps Oceanographic Institution, San Diego, USA
• Roberto Kolter Harvard Medical School, USA
• Flavia Marinelli, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy
• Katherine Duncan, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, UK
• Lona Alkhalaf, University of Warwick, UK
• Mônica T. Pupo, University of Sao Paulo, Brasil
• Andrew Truman, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK
• Duška Vujaklija, Rudjer Bošković Institute, Croatia
• Barrie Wilkinson, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK
• Gerry Wright, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
• María Mercedes Zambrano, Corporación Corpogen, Bogotá, Colombia

Likely content

• Isolation and screening of metabolite-producing microorganisms
• Purification and characterisation of microbial natural products
• Natural product biosynthesis and its regulation
• Ecology and evolution of natural product biosynthetic gene clusters
• Genome mining for novel natural products
• Prediction and characterisation of biosynthetic pathways in silico and experimentally
• Activation of transcriptionally silent cryptic gene clusters
• Natural products in microbial communities and cell-cell interactions
• Chemical ecology of insect-microbe symbiosis
• Specialised metabolites and plant-microbe interactions
• Marine microbial chemistry

Computer workshop

The workshop will introduce software, websites and methods for the analysis of specialised metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters encoding modular polyketide synthases and/or non-ribosomal peptide synthetases. These websites and methods are useful for analysing cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters and making structural predictions about their metabolic products, providing examples of the increasing power of bioinformatics for deducing details of biosynthetic pathways from DNA sequences and hence aiding in the discovery of novel compounds.

Format

A typical working day will include lectures in the morning, computer workshops, and small-group discussions and classes in the afternoon, and student presentations and poster sessions in the evening; all participants will be asked to bring a poster. There will be free time on the working days and one day will be devoted to an all-day excursion. There will be a welcome mixer party on the day of arrival and a farewell party on the final evening before departure the next day.

More information on https://www.jic.ac.uk/training-careers/summer-schools/applied-molecular-microbiology/.