Summary of Microbiota and Health course 2022

The second NDPIA course on microbiota and health was held during the week of 14-18 of November 2022. Following the first microbiota and health course which was held online in 2020, the NDPIA organization was happy to be able to arrange this course at Aspenäs Herrgård in Lerum, Gothenburg.

Group photo of the participants and organizers of Microbiota and Health 2024. The photo was taken by personnel at Aspenäs Herrgård.

Microbiota are diverse microbial communities associated with multicellular organisms. These communities of microbes and their genomes, the microbiome, affect physiological processes of the host. Understanding how microbiota interact with a host is critical to understand the host biology and host susceptibility to infectious and chronic diseases and host responses to drugs.

We had twenty-two national and international lecturers sharing their expertise in the microbiome field, and dedicating time for fruitful discussions with course participants. This course aims to provide a broad knowledge considering different research fields within the microbiome, while also providing details about each topic and their cutting-edge research. Topics covered were microbiota diversity, methods used to study microbiomes, microbiota associated with hosts, such as humans and animals, the role of microbiota in human health and disease, effects of diet and age on the microbiota, interactions of the microbiota with the immune system, mucins and drugs, host-bacterial mutualism and development of symbioses, collaboration and competition in the host microbiome, and present day trends on modifying the microbiota.

“The size and focus of the course were perfect! I particularly liked that a lot of time was allocated for discussions and questions, and plenty of time to discuss with everyone about their posters.”

-Anonymous participant

Lecture on “Introduction to microbiomes”, given by Björn Schröder, group leader at Umeå University. Photo: Hanna Eriksson.

Lecture on “Collaboration and competition in host microbiomes”, given by Erik Bakkeren, postdoctoral researcher at University of Oxford, UK. Photo: Hanna Eriksson.

The lectures were combined with poster sessions enabling the participants to present and discuss their own research with fellows and lecturers. In addition, free time was provided for, social activities, informal discussions and to build national and international scientific networks with participants and lecturers.

“Good organization of the course, great talks, great networking opportunities and I have several new ideas to apply into my own project!”

-Anonymous participant

To see the full course program, please visit:  Microbiota and Health 2022 | NDPIA

Many thanks to the organizing committee:

Björn Schröder, Umeå University and MIMS

Valentina Tremaroli, University of Gothenburg

Debra Milton, Umeå University, NDPIA National Coordinator

Hanna Eriksson, Umeå University, NDPIA Project Coordinator

Helen Wang, Uppsala University, NDPIA Director of Studies

Matthias Georg Mitteregger, University of Gothenburg

Meenakshi Pradhan, University of Gothenburg

Michael Koomey, University of Oslo, IBA National Coordinator