Microbiology Monthly Newsletter for Microbiology at the Department of Cell & Molecular Biology Lundberg Laboratory, Göteborg University [ January 1999 ] [ February 1999 ] [ March 1999 ] [ April 1999 ] [ May 1999 ] [ June 1999 ] [ July-August 1999 ] [ September 1999 ] [ October 1999 ] January 1999 Greetings! You are looking at an attempt to increase our general awareness of what's going on at our department. The objective of the newsletter is to inform you about topics such as our scientific contributions, visiting scientists, new students, courses, events, etc. It is my hope that you will find this newsletter informative and useful. Anyone wanting something to be included in the newsletter could send me an electronic mail: (thomas.nystrom@gmm.gu.se) or communicate in any other convenient way. The newsletter is also (or will be) present on the department homepage. Scientific Contributions 1998 was scientifically a very prosperous year for the department. The department published more than 20 papers in international peer reviewed journals and we have managed to cover a number of key topics in Biology/Microbiology. A unifying theme of our research appears to be biological adaptability. Our publications have covered such adaptability at many integron levels, including molecular - physiological - cellular levels (Adler, Blomberg, Gutafsson, Hohmann, Larsson, Nyström, and Farewell), evolutionary levels by horisontal gene transfer (Hermansson), population levels (Sörensen and Sahlsten), and whole community levels (Pedersen and Hallbeck). We can look forward to a year of further increasing our knowledge in these topics and perhaps reaching some new understanding on the dialogue between biological integron levels and the concept of emergence. As you may have observed, the latest published contributions of the Microbiology groups and Hans Elwing's are collected on display outside Pia's room. Whenever you have a new reprint, put it in my mail-box and I will put the "old" one in our archive and the new one on display. New Faces We have some new researchers in the department - you are all welcome! Manuel Ballesteros, is a new post doc. in Thomas Nyström's group. Manuel is from Spain and will be elucidating whether the free radical hypothesis of aging is relevant also in explaining starvation-induced die-off of bacteria and yeast. Andrea Lausova, is PhD student from the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava. Andrea will, during her three month stay in the lab, together with Anne Farewell, elucidate to what extent Cadmium causes oxidative damage in E. coli. Marie Céleste De Jusus Ferreira, from France, is a new post doc. in Stefan Hohmann's lab. She will work on the genetic analysis of hypo-osmotic shock in yeast. Christian Möllerström, a new PhD student in Malte Hermansson's lab, will work on structural and functional analysis of bacterial biofilms. Daniel Wetterskog, a 10p-project student has initiated his project concerning cation homeostasis in yeast together with Ingrid Sjöström. Kristina Elgbratt, a 10p-project student is working on redox regulation of the tdh2 gene in yeast together with Hadi Valadi. ASM Meeting 1999 The preliminary program for the annual meeting of ASM in Chicago, May 30 - June 3, has now arrived. Feel free to borrow, temporarily, the copy in my office. There are some half day and full day courses at this meeting that may be of interest for students. Specifically, one is on biofilm (course W25) and another on Molecular approaches to environmental microbiology (course W29). Some sessions seems, in my view, to be of special interest for members of the department. To name a few: Molecular dissection of complex biological processes, Microbial genomics: taking the microbiology laboratory to the 21st century, Cell surfaces and cell signalling, Cell-cell signalling in bacterial biofilms, Recent advances in subsurface microbial ecology, Horisontal gene transfer: past and present, Teaching by example: using case studies in microbiology teaching, Membrane bound osmosensors, Mitochondria - cellular processes beyond oxidative phosporylation, Evolution of genomes from bacteria to man. Have a great month! Thomas