Probing and Understanding Microbiomes and Microbial Communities (Invited Talks)

Microbial communities and microbiomes are dynamic networks that realize collective functions which impact diverse environments. Community-level functions are influenced by the population dynamics and ecological stability and functional activities of biomolecular networks distributed across constituent community members. We lack an understanding of the organizational principles by which these intracellular networks, partitioned among species, are integrated into the total functional capabilities of microbial consortia, as well as how these activities are modulated by external factors. This session will focus on (1) understanding the ecological and molecular forces that influence microbial communities and (2) experimental and computational approaches to interrogate microbial community structure and function. Supported by the AIChE Foundation.