About this meeting

Given that a lot of scientific meetings have been cancelled or postponed, the Micro Binfie podcast (https://soundcloud.com/microbinfie) is organizing a “virtual conference” so that we can still share our science. We working on ways to best translate the conference experience into a virtual meeting, including the social/networking aspect. Sessions will start after mid-April. Each session is scheduled every Wednesday, running over several weeks. The dates include:

• 15th April 2020
• 22nd April 2020
• 29th April 2020
• 6th May 2020

Generally, talks will include microbes - viruses, bacteria, fungi, etc - and the talks will have a component of shotgun sequencing, and downstream bioinformatics analysis. Talks do not have to be limited to this scope, i.e. if wet lab results are required to present a clear narrative then they should, by all means, be included. Purely methodological presentations are also welcome. Speakers can choose how long they wish to speak (up to 30 minutes).

Topics include:

• Microbial ecology and evolution
  This topic relates to microbes in their relationship in the wider environment. This can be represented in different ways,either as a network of functional systems or interplay of species. We are interested in both. Talks that would present how we measure such relationships would also be welcome.
• Clinical microbiology
  This topic relates to microbial pathogens and their genomics. Talks in this session would naturally lean to a public health application, but this doesn’t have to be explicitly demonstrated.
• Population genetics and Microbial epidemiology
  This topic relates to the genetic differences within and without populations. This includes broad brush phenomena like adaptation, speciation and population structure; and the detailed forensics of outbreaks.
• Bioinformatics protocols and methods
  This topic will have talks present algorithms, paradigms and protocols of interest to the microbial genomics and bioinformatics community.