The 9th National Infection Biology / Swedish Microbiology meeting and NDPIA’s 6th network meeting took place on 16-18 November 2021 with a total of 237 registered participants, including 39 poster presenters and 15 speakers. The meeting was a virtual meeting that provided a broad vision on current state-of-the-art microbiology techniques and research in Sweden.

During the 21st Century, the influence of microorganisms on our health and the environment has been realized in ways, both good and bad, that have never been imagined before. Microbiology is now an integrative science where discoveries in microbial pathogenesis may impact studies of various other sub-disciplines of microbiology, such as microbial ecology. Microbiologists now understand that microorganisms utilize similar molecular mechanisms for diverse purposes in both the host and the environment.

Keynote speakers were Swedish researchers working within the sub-disciplines of bacteriology, virology, parasitology, host response, clinical infection biology, environmental microbiology, zoonotics, and new methods.

Online lecture on “Developing alpaca nanobodies for the fight against COVID-19”, given by Gerald McInerney, professor at Karolinska Institutet. Photo: Hanna Eriksson.

Online lecture on “Registered-based sepsis research-opportunities and limitations”, given by Malin Inghammar, associate professor at Lund University. Photo: Hanna Eriksson.

Online lecture on “Host-directed therapy against respiratory tract infections”, given by Peter Bergman, clinical microbiologist/ immunodeficiency physician at Karolinska Institutet. Photo: Hanna Eriksson.

To involve junior researchers, additional talks were selected from the submitted poster abstracts.

Poster presentations were organized as digital poster walks that allowed participants to present and discuss their work with other participants.

Students were presenting and discussing their work during online poster walk sessions. Photo: Hanna Eriksson.

The meeting was co-organized by the National Doctoral Programme in Infections and Antibiotics (NDPIA) and the Swedish Society for Microbiology (SFM) with the aims to enhance cross-disciplinary research in Sweden within the fields of infection biology and microbiology as well as to strengthen the Swedish network of scientists within these fields.

Many thanks to the organizing committee:

Debra Milton, Umeå University, NDPIA National Director
Helen Wang, Uppsala University, NDPIA
Pontus Nordenfelt, Lund University, NDPIA
Edmund Loh, Karolinska Institutet, NDPIA
Keira Melican, Karolinska Institutet, Representative for SFM
Per-Eric Lindgren, Linköping University, SFM Vice-Chair

The fifth network meeting of the National Doctoral Programme in Infections and Antibiotics (NDPIA) was held in Aronsborg (Bålsta) 14-15 October, 2019. For this meeting, NDPIA joined forces with the National Infection Biology network (NIB) and Swedish Society for Microbiology (SE-SFM) to co-organize a National Infection Biology Meeting. The long-term goal is for these networks to continue organizing joint NIB-meetings biannually. The meeting had more than 110 participants. This co-organized meeting provided an opportunity for Swedish researchers working within infection biology to network and to find collaborators with common interest.

The keynote speakers included:

• Raphael Valdivia (Chlamydia, Duke University, USA),
• Jost Enninga (micropinosomes Salmonella, Institute Pasteur, France),
• Joan Geoghegan (S. aureus and atopic dermatitis, Trinity College, Ireland),
• Eva Gluenz (Leishmania, University of Oxford, UK),
• Susanne Häussler (Pseudomonas aeruginosa transcriptional profiling, Rigshospitalet, Denmark),
• Helle Krogh Johansen (P. aeruginosa adaptation, Rigshospitalet, Denmark),
• Mikael Sellin (Salmonella invasion, Uppsala, Sweden), and
• Boris Striepen (Cryptosporidium, University of Pennsylvania, USA).

Along with the invited speakers, 22 short oral presentations on a wide-variety of topics in infection biology were selected. The posters (61) were presented via poster walks, which included a short presentation of the main findings of the work followed by a short question period. The poster walks were done in groups and lots of lively conversations were heard in the poster areas.

A “Meet the Speakers” event was scheduled after the lunches. Small groups of students met with speakers of their choice to discuss scientific topics or experiences. This provided a wonderful opportunity for students to meet face-to-face with outstanding researchers to discuss infection biology.

The abstract book for the meeting can be found following this link.

Many thanks go to the organizing committee:

Oliver Billker, Umea University, MIMS
Eva-Maria Diehl, Umea University, MIMS/NDPIA
Ake Forsberg Umea University, NDPIA
Fredrik Kahn, Lund University, NDPIA
Keira Melican, Karolinska Institutet, SFM
Barbara Sixt, Umea University, MIMS
Staffan Svard, Uppsala University, SFM

The next co-organized NIB meeting is tentatively scheduled to be held in the Fall of 2021.
See you there!

On 1-2 October, NDPIA organised a workshop on English writing and a joint meeting, the 4^th NDPIA/SFM Day, together with “Svenska föreningen för mikrobiologi” (SFM) at Hjortviken Konferens, beautifully located at the west coast outside of Gothenburg. Young investigators provided very positive feedback to NDPIA/SFM management with comments like ”excellent workshop, a great poster walk, good networking opportunities” and suggest that similar events should be organised in the future.

Continue reading Appreciated NDPIA workshop and 4th NDPIA/SFM Day 1-2 October 2018 →

On 16-17 October 2017 NDPIA held its third network meeting with workshops on science communication and career planning. In connection with this, the National Infection Biology (NIB) Network held its seventh meeting on 17-18 October at Djurönäset Conference Hotel outside of Stockholm.

In line with the NIB network’s ambitions, the meeting provided opportunities for young researchers to present their research and to network with scientists from all the various fields of infection biology research. The NIB 2017 programme featured international keynote talks, selected talks from submitted abstracts and two poster sessions. Among a total of 47 posters submitted by NDPIA members, 10 were selected for short presentations during meeting.

Continue reading Successful NDPIA workshops and NIB 2017 16-18 October →

 Click on the collage for a lagrer picture.

The second network meeting of the National Doctoral Programme in Infections and Antibiotics (NDPIA) was held in Gothenburg 11-12 April on the theme “Microbiota in Health and Disease”. The meeting started off with an introduction to NDPIA and international partners from Norway (Norwegian Research School in Infection Biology and Antimicrobials, IBA) and Germany (Helmholtz Center for Infection Research as well as the International Leibniz Research School). Participants got to know each other via an early speed-dating session and could engage in deeper scientific discussions at the two poster sessions and via additional networking opportunities during the meeting. There were also short presentations by nine NDPIA programme participants (selected from submitted abstracts) in addition to four lectures focusing on microbiota by invited speakers. The final session was dedicated to input from NDPIA participants regarding follow-up of the meeting, suggestions for future activities to be organized by/with support from NDPIA and with respect to further networking among NDPIA participants.

Three poster awards of 5 000 SEK each, to be used for participation in a national/international conference or for a research visit, were presented to the PhD students Johan Bengtsson-Palme (Dept. of Infectious Diseases at University of Gothenburg) and Malin Alsved (Dept. of Design Sciences at Lund University) and to Dr. Marius Linkevicius (Dept. of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology at Uppsala University) – congratulations!

The meeting was appreciated both for its lectures/presentations and network opportunities. In particular the speed dating, where each and everyone got the chance to initiate contacts with all the other participants during a two hour session, was highlighted during this second network meeting of NDPIA.

The local hosts Ingrid Bölin and Carl-Fredrik Flach at the University of Gothenburg are greatly acknowledged for organizing the successful meeting!

Link to programme with presentations

Link to take home message about “explainartist” – how to share knowledge creatively, described by PhD student Ajibola Omokanye, University of Gothenburg (www.explainartist.org).