Program

Complete Programme booklet (PDF, 3mb)

Saturday August 30

16:00 Registration

18:00 Opening lecture Graham Walker, MIT, US: “Life can be stressful: Genome stability and instability”

Reception in the Rikshospitalet glass mall

Dinner at Restaurant D/S Louise

 

Sunday August 31

Session 1 – Genome dynamics and DNA repair
Convenor: Tone Tønjum

9:00 Dan Andersson, Uppsala, Sweden: "Fitness constraints on horizontal gene transfer"

9:30 Stewart Shuman, Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, US: “Mechanisms of bacterial NHEJ”

10:00 Miroslav Radman, INSERM, Paris, France: “Genome dynamics and the robustness of microbes”

10:30 Coffee break

Session 2 – DNA repair
Convenor: Josep Casadesus

11:00 Robert Fuchs, Marseille, France: "Genetic instability initiated during Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER): a new mutagenesis pathway in E. coli"

11:30 Martin Marinus, Boston, USA: "Dam methylation and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7"

12:00 Magnar Bjørås, Oslo, Norway: "The LexA regulated tisAB and dinQ genes modulate UV protection in E. Coli"

12:30 Lunch / Poster viewing

Session 3 – Horizontal gene transfer
Convenor: Charles Dorman

14:00 Fernando de la Cruz, Santander, Spain: “The conjugation machinery”

14:30 Rainer Haas, Munich, Germany: "Role of Helicobacter pylori type IV secretion systems in DNA transfer and virulence“

15:00 Coffee break

15:30 Pascal Simonet, CNRS, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, France: “Regulation of HGT by natural transformation in Ralstonia solanacearum”

16:00 Beate Averhoff, Frankfurt, Germany: "The Ins and Outs of DNA transfer in Thermus thermophilus"

16:30 Snacks, poster viewing and discussion

19:30 Bus transport from SAS Radisson Hotel

20:00 Festive dinner at Holmenkollen Park Hotell

 

Monday September 1

Session 4 – Transformation
Convenor: Chris Bayliss

9:00 Jean-Pierre Claverys, Toulouse, France: "Interplay of DprA, RecA, and SsbB in the processing of transforming DNA in Streptococcus pneumoniae"

9:30 Donald A. Morrison, Chicago, USA: “Regulated proteolysis in the competence pheromone response of Streptococcus pneumoniae"

10:00 Sigve Håvarstein, University of Life Sciences, Norway: "Acquisition of transforming DNA by naturally competent pneumococci”

10:30 Coffe break

Session 5 – Adaptation and antigenic variation
Convenor: Sigve Håvarstein

11:00 Stuart Hill, Chicago, US: "Pilin gene variation in Neisseria gonorrhoeae: reassessing the old paradigms"

11:30 Tone Tønjum, Oslo, Norway: “Meningococcal versus mycobacterial genome dynamics”

12:00 Ole Herman Ambur, Oslo, Norway: "The impact of the neisserial DNA uptake sequence on genome evolution and stability"

12:30 Lunch and poster viewing

Session 6 – Evolution
Convenor: Ole Herman Ambur

13:30 Regine Hakenbeck, Regensburg, Germany: “Genomic evolution of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus mitis – what is a species?”

14:00 Brigitte Gicquel, Paris, France: "Evolution and diversity as told by genome stability keepers in Mycobacterium tuberculosis"

14:30 Eduardo P. Rocha, Paris, France: "The dilemma of the bacterial genome between organisation and creativity"

15:00 Bjørn Dalhus, Oslo, Norway: "Structural basis for hypoxanthine recognition and 3’ incision by endonuclease V"

15:30 Coffee break

16:00 Open discussion: "What is missing? Where do we go from here?"
Meet the speaker – student presentations – sponsor presentations - Poster viewing / Discussions

18:00 Dinner excursion / Boat trip

 

Tuesday September 2

Session 7 – Genome instability
Convenor: Eduardo Rocha

9:00 Chris Bayliss, Oxford, UK: "Phase variation rate: Determinants of and fitness implications for Neisseria meningitidis and Campylobacter jejuni"

9:30 Jesus Blázquez, Madrid, Spain: "Antibiotic stress and genome instability"

10:00 Coffee break - Poster viewing

11:00 Honorary lecture: Doctor med honoris causa Universitas Osloensis Vilhelm A. Bohr, NIA,NIH, US: “Genome dynamics in aging”

12:00 Lunch and poster viewing

Session 8 – DNA regulation and replication
Convenor: Mike Koomey

13:00 Josep Casadesús, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain: “Roles of DNA adenine methylation in Salmonella virulence”

13:30 Charles Dorman, University of Dublin, Ireland: “H-NS: genome guardian and universal repressor”

14:00 Coffee

14:30 Kirsten Skarstad, Oslo, Norway: “Organization of Escherichia coli replication forks by the SeqA protein”

15:00 Steven J. Sandler, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, US: "Understanding the connection between DNA replication and recombination using fluorescence microscopy and single cell analysis"

15:30 Berenike Maier, University of Münster, Germany: "Quantitative analysis of competence development in Bacillus subtilis"

16:00 Closing remarks

16:15 Course exam (for doctoral students)

 

The posters will be accessible throughout the meeting.