Summary of Microbiota and Health course 2024

During the week of 7-11 October 2024, NDPIA organized its third course on microbiota and health that was held at Stora Brännbo in Sigtuna. As previous years, this course introduced the field of microbiomes with a focus on how microbiota affect the health of a host. 

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

“This course exceeded my expectations. I was astonished by the thorough literature analysis performed by the lecturers to pinpoint the most essential information.”

-Anonymous participant

Seventeen national and international experts in the microbiome field, including Christine Moissl-Eichinger (Medical University Graz), Fredrik Bäckhed (University of Gothenburg), and Reetta Satokari (University of Helsinki) presented lectures and held engaged discussions on their topics. Areas covered include microbiota associated with the human gut, genitourinary tract, and mouth, interactions of the microbiota with the immune system, mucins and drugs and present-day trends on modifying the microbiota.

Lecture on “Introduction to microbiomes”, given by Björn Schröder, docent at Umeå University. Photo: Louise Lindbäck.

Lecture on “Vaginal microbiome and women’s health”, given by Juan Du, associate professor at Karolinska Institute. Photo: Louise Lindbäck.

The Microbiota and Health course of 2024 offered a new segment in the schedule as two workshop sessions on microbiome data analysis were included. These were led by Luisa Hugerth, assistant professor at Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, and covered the topic on how to retrieve, annotate, and analyse metabarcoding data in R.

Workshop session on microbiome data analysis given by Luisa Hugerth, assistant professor at Uppsala University. Photo: Louise Lindbäck.

In addition to the lectures, course participants had the opportunity to present and discuss their own research with participants and lecturers during poster sessions and free time. As always during a NDPIA course, plenty of time was also dedicated to social activities to promote interactions and networking.

Students were presenting and discussing their work during poster sessions. Photo: Louise Lindbäck.

Students and lecturers participating in a social activity playing Gut Check: The Microbiome game. Photo: Louise Lindbäck.

“The main strengths of the course I would say is the broad range of topics the different speakers covered. I learned a lot, perhaps the most, from the speakers that were in a different field than my own. Not only things that are just interesting, but also things I think I can apply in my own projects. The fact that the speakers were some of the top ones in their own field is also a major strength.”

-Anonymous participant

To see the full course program, please visit:  Microbiota and Health 2024 | NDPIA

Many thanks to the organizing committee:

Björn Schröder, Umeå University and MIMS

Valentina Tremaroli, University of Gothenburg

Annasara Lenman, Umeå University

Debra Milton, Umeå University, NDPIA National Coordinator

Louise Lindbäck, Umeå University, NDPIA Project Coordinator