MINUTES OF THE SECTION MEETING

AT HINDSGAVL, DENMARK, JULY 5 2001

01-01.  Apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from five members of the Section

01-02.  Minutes of the last Section meeting held in Semmering, Austria, on October 6, 2000.

The minutes were accepted by the present section members.

01-03.  Matters arising from the Minutes

Minute 01-05: Section symposium ”The physiology, regulation and biochemistry of electron transfer in microbial catabolism” held in Terschelling in April 2001.

Joost Teixeira de Mattos reported that over 80 participants were registered at the meeting, and thanks to a FEMS fellowship grant 10 fellowships could be given to young scientists. Income from registration fees had balanced expenditure.

01-04  Report from the Section Chairman

Jeff Cole reported that the proceedings of two Section conferences (Single Cell Analysis and Recombinant Protein Production) had been published.

A report from the Section to the EFB Executive Committee and General Assembly in Madrid on 7 and 8 July 2001 was prepared, which was distributed to the Section members, together with information on the formation of the New EFB. Jeff Cole briefly summarised the content.

To further enhance the strength of the section, Jeff Cole called for volunteers to help with Section Administration and membership of the Section Committee, especially for help with the organisation of future scientific meetings.

Report of other Section activities since the last Meeting:

Session on ”Recombinant Protein Production” at the ACHEMASIA in Beijing, China, from 9 – 11 May, 2001. Diethard Mattanovich reported that DECHEMA had approached the EFB Sections to organise scientific sessions at the ACHEMASIA Exhibition and Conference on Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. The Microbial Physiology Section volunteered to organise a session on Recombinant Protein Production with both European and Chinese speakers, and Diethard Mattanovich, Gen Larsson and Danilo Porro took care of this task. According to DECHEMA officials, this session was the most successful of the entire ACHEMASIA.

Section Webpage:

Christine Lang (the “Webmaster” of the Section committee) reported about the concept of the Section webpage, which is drafted and will be available towards the end of this year. The address is:

http://www.tu-berlin.de/biotec/mibi/AG_Lang/efb/

Section Logo:

To increase the identity and public perception of the Section, a logo has been created (see attachment).

01-05.  Review of the arrangements for the current meeting.

Lisbeth Olsson reported that 150 participants had registered for the current meeting on Physiology of yeasts and filamentous fungi. 30 lectures and 64 posters would be presented. Important support was provided through industrial sponsorship, by FEMS young scientist fellowships and by the Danish organisers of ECB5.

01-06.  Review of progress in the organisation of the next Section symposium entitled ”Analysis of microbial physiology at the Single Cell Level II”. 

Jens Nielsen reported on the follow-up meeting of the  conference on Single Cell Analysis, which is scheduled for June 2-4, 2002 at Munkbjerk Hotel in Denmark. The organising committee is chaired by Mhairi McIntyre and co-chaired by Jens Nielsen. The scientific programme is currently being developed. Information can be obtained from singlecell@biocentrum.dtu.dk, or from the Section webpage.

01-07.  Review of progress in the organisation of the Section symposium ”Recombinant Protein Production II.”

This meeting, the follow-up of the Semmering meeting, is being organised by Danilo Porro, who reported that the date is fixed for November 14-16, 2002, at the Villa Erba in Cernobbio just outside of Como, Italy. To keep the successful communication of past section conferences, the number of participants should be in a range of 100-200. Information will be available in autumn 2001. E-mail address for requests: efb.112@unimib.it

01-08.  Preview to ECB 10 and involvement of the Section in future Congresses.

Anyone interested in helping with the Section’s contributions to future ECBs is invited to contact the Chairman and Secretary.  A preview of the Madrid Congress was given at the Section meeting.

01-09.  Ideas for future Section symposia and other activities.

New suggestions and volunteers from individuals to help organise them are invited.

A topic of high priority for the Section would be the physiology of pathogens in vivo, with strong emphasis on how microbial physiological research can be applied to solve problems raised by genomic data mining.

Lisbeth Olsson mentioned that Jean-Marie Francois from Toulouse, France expressed interest in organising a follow-up meeting on the current “Physiology of yeasts and filamentous fungi”. The Section Committee would accept this offer with pleasure and will contact the French colleagues. Alternatively, or for a follow-up, Jack Pronk (Delft, NL) expressed his interest to organise a meeting on this topic.

Initial proposals have been made for a follow-up meeting to the Terschelling meeting, possibly to be held in the Rhine area of Germany in 2003 or 2004.

01-10.  Next meeting of the Section.

This will be held at the conference on Single Cell Analysis at Munkbjerk Hotel, Denmark in June 2002.

Diethard Mattanovich; August 2001