EMBL Symposium: Infection: pathogens, hosts, and microbiomes

Infectious diseases are among the most prevalent causes of human illness and death in the world. Epidemics & pandemics have shaped human evolution and history, and although for a while they were considered a solved problem for the developed world, the recent past has showed us all why this is not the case. Antimicrobial resistance, global warming, human population size increase, modern lifestyles (urbanization, traveling), decrease of wild-life habitats for pathogen reservoirs all contribute to creating an ideal setting for infectious diseases becoming an even greater challenge in the future. This symposium will bring together experts working on different pathogens (viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites) who rarely meet. It will cover a broad range of topics on the host-pathogen interface, highlighting the diversity in mechanisms and the convergence of strategies pathogens use to invade, hijack host machineries, proliferate within the host, cause disease, and spread to other hosts. Session topics: - Structural aspects of infection - Global analysis of pathogens - Pathogen-cell dialogues - Pathogen-tissue interactions - Microbiome, evolution, and beyond