UCMR Day 2023
Last week, many of us attended the UCMR Day 2023, the first physical UCMR meeting since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. UCMR, the Umeå Centre for Microbial Research, brings together all scientists in Umeå whose research focuses on pathogenic microbes, from viruses to bacteria to fungi. According to UCMR Director Yaowen Wu, the consortium plays an important role in addressing the complexity of microbial infections. This complexity relates to antimicrobial resistance, coinfections, and molecular and cellular aspects of pathogenesis that are not yet very well understood.
The day included two exciting keynote lectures. Tobias Dörr showed how stress-signaling promotes antibiotic resistance and tolerance in Gram-negative bacteria. At the end of the day, Maria Grazia Masucci presented a lot of data on host cell remodeling by herpes virus encoded deconjugases.
In between, the day was full of elevator talks of exciting research within UCMR, with approaches ranging from molecular medicine to structural biology and biophysics. There was also a poster session, where participants could learn more. Our group strongly represented virology-related research: Dario, Kerstin, Lifeng, Konrad and Fouzia gave excellent elevator talks and presented posters during their assigned sessions. Extra impressive, given the intimidating big stage of the Aula Nordica where the event was held.
With a total of around 150 participants, this in-person event was deemed a great success. The program had two more activities to foster UCMR collaborations and to maximize the impact of the UCMR consortium. Throughout the day, participants could write post-its with ideas for UCMR or research questions on the wall, and others could respond with other post-its. Also, participants were divided into discussion groups, to come up with how the UCMR infrastructure could further be improved to maximize its impact in the future. It was great to have this important internal event in-person again, and we look forward to the next one.
Last but not least, this event was a great opportunity for our new ERASMUS student from the Netherlands, Sofie Bechaouch, to get introduced to work being carried out in our lab and beyond: she enjoyed the cross-disciplinary mingling and dinner characteristic for internal events at Umeå University, right in her first week here. Welcome Sofie!
