Systems and Synthetic Biology of Interacting Microorganisms

Microorganisms (viruses, bacteria, and fungi) play critical roles in numerous natural processes associated with human health and the environment. Almost without exception, these microbes are engaged in extensive interactions with one another and/or with other species (e.g., their human host). With the rapid development of high throughput technologies (e.g., metagenomic sequencing) and related computational methods, the investigation of microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions are defining new frontiers of systems biology. Moreover, emerging synthetic biology approaches have also started to capitalize on this research area of rich potential. This session will highlight original systems and synthetic biology approaches for understanding and engineering microbial interactions. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: "omics" based study of microbial communities; modeling of microbe-host interactions; synthetic systems of interacting microbes; and engineering of microbial consortia. Subjects closely related to practical applications (e.g., challenges in the environment or human health) are especially of interest.