The Science Museum hosts the 1st International Meeting of Young Researchers into Bacterial Genomics

The meeting is organised by the City of Arts and Sciences in partnership with the Universitat de Valencia and the British Council. It includes a series of free public conferences given by the researcher based a the prestigious Sanger Institute in Cambridge, Dr. Julian Parkhill, and the Director of the Structural Genomic Information Laboratory in Marseille, Jean Michael Claverie, at which anyone interested in this area of health sciences is welcome.

The sequencing and analysis of bacterial genomes, the analysis of sequences and proteins, gene prediction, genomic resources, genomic flexibility and bacterial phylogenomics will be the main themes covered over the course of this meeting, in which researchers will share the results of their respective research projects and establish future partnerships.

The meeting also has a section that is free of charge and open to any members of the public who may be interested in genetics, with two public lectures and discussion groups. On Wednesday the 28^th of September at 19:30 in the Auditorio Santiago Grisolía Auditorium of the Science Museum, the researcher Dr. Julian Parkhill from the Sanger Institute, Cambridge, will give the first of these lectures, entitled “Clues to disease: what does the genome tell us about it?”

Parkhill will unveil how future study of the genome can help to cure diseases for which no solution has yet been found. He will also talk about how treatment will switch from being therapeutic to being preventive. On Thursday the 29th of September at 19:30, also in the Science Museum Auditorium, the Director of the Structural Genomic Information Laboratory of Marseilles,  Jean Michael Claverie, will speak on “Inventing resistance mechanisms through medication”, introducing the audience to genetic therapy and new types of customised medication.

Also on Thursday the 29^th, from 21:00 to 22:15 in the Museum restaurant, there will be a “Science Bar”, a discussion between experts covering everything to do with medication, their social and economic implications and their significance in developing countries amongst other topics. The day will finish with a performance of live jazz.  

The 1^st International Meeting on Bacterial Genomics is directed at young doctoral or post-doctoral researchers who will study the genomics of micro-organisms, fundamentally human pathogens. This conference will also update them on the tools require for undertaking genomic research of bacteria.