European Academy of Microbiology

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The European Academy of Microbiology, generally abbreviated as EAM, is a European institution made up of about 150 microbiology scientists, founded in 2009. [1]

Contents

The main objective of the Academy is to be the authoritative voice of microbiology in Europe and thus enhance the potential of microbiology and microbiologists in Europe and globally. [2] The Federation of European Microbiology Societies (FEMS) founded and supports the EAM, and many EAM members collaborate with FEMS in various capacities (e.g. directors, editors in chief of FEMS journals, etc.). The President of the EAM as of 1 January 2021 is Jörg Vogel. [3]

Origins

The idea of establishing an “Academy” of senior microbiologists within Europe, aimed to be an advisory source both for the Federation and governmental/other bodies, was strongly supported by FEMS executives. For this purpose, an ad-hoc committee for the admission of new member societies was set up to discuss and support this initiative, that was brought to the attention of the FEMS Council in 2007. The European Academy of Microbiology was established in June 2009 in Gothenburg (Sweden), with the goal of promoting excellence in microbiology across Europe.

Members

The members of the European Academy of Microbiology are experts in microbiology with a notable record of publications, patents or inventions and important results and contributions to the microbiological community. The recruitment process is  highly selective and based on a peer-review evaluation by the current members to uphold the high scientific standards of the EAM.

Members of the EAM include Cecilia Arraiano, Frédéric Barras, Melanie Blokesch, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Petra Dersch, Alain Filloux, Geoff Gadd, David Holden, Stipan Jonjić, Hilary Lappin-Scott, Tracy Palmer, Philippe Sansonetti, Geoffrey L Smith, Victor Sourjik and many more prominent microbiologists. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

Activities

In collaboration with other institutions and societies (e.g. FEMS) the Academy is involved in:

Examples of recent EAM activities are the 2011 meeting ‘EHEC infection and control’ following the European outbreak of the enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli strain O104:H4, which was attended by world renowned experts in pathogenic E. coli and resulted in an authoritative case report. [13] In May 2019, EAM and FEMS organized at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, a tribute to the life and work of Stanley Falkow (1934-2018) the founder of molecular microbial pathogenesis. [14]

Related Research Articles

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Escherichia coli ( ESH-ə-RIK-ee-ə KOH-ly) is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus Escherichia that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms. Most E. coli strains are harmless, but some serotypes such as EPEC, and ETEC are pathogenic and can cause serious food poisoning in their hosts, and are occasionally responsible for food contamination incidents that prompt product recalls. Most strains are part of the normal microbiota of the gut and are harmless or even beneficial to humans (although these strains tend to be less studied than the pathogenic ones). For example, some strains of E. coli benefit their hosts by producing vitamin K2 or by preventing the colonization of the intestine by pathogenic bacteria. These mutually beneficial relationships between E. coli and humans are a type of mutualistic biological relationship — where both the humans and the E. coli are benefitting each other. E. coli is expelled into the environment within fecal matter. The bacterium grows massively in fresh fecal matter under aerobic conditions for three days, but its numbers decline slowly afterwards.

<i>Escherichia coli</i> O157:H7 Serotype of the bacteria Escherichia coli

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shiga toxin</span> Family of related toxins

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Falkow</span> American microbiologist

Stanley "Stan" Falkow was an American microbiologist and a professor of microbiology at Georgetown University, University of Washington, and Stanford University School of Medicine. Falkow is known as the father of the field of molecular microbial pathogenesis. He formulated molecular Koch's postulates, which have guided the study of the microbial determinants of infectious diseases since the late 1980s. Falkow spent over 50 years uncovering molecular mechanisms of how bacteria cause disease and how to disarm them. Falkow also was one of the first scientists to investigate antimicrobial resistance, and presented his research extensively to scientific, government, and lay audiences explaining the spread of resistance from one organism to another, now known as horizontal gene transfer, and the implications of this phenomenon on our ability to combat infections in the future.

Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) is an international European scientific organization, formed by the union of a number of national organizations; there are now 57 members from 41 European countries, regular and provisional. Members can apply for fellowships, grants and/or support when organising a meeting. FEMS facilitates exchange of scientific knowledge to all microbiologists in Europe and worldwide by publishing seven microbiology journals and organising a biennial congress for microbiologists around the world. It also initiates campaigns such as the European Academy of Microbiology (EAM).

2011 Germany <i>E. coli</i> O104:H4 outbreak 2011 foodborne illness outbreak in northern Germany

A novel strain of Escherichia coli O104:H4 bacteria caused a serious outbreak of foodborne illness focused in northern Germany in May through June 2011. The illness was characterized by bloody diarrhea, with a high frequency of serious complications, including hemolytic–uremic syndrome (HUS), a condition that requires urgent treatment. The outbreak was originally thought to have been caused by an enterohemorrhagic (EHEC) strain of E. coli, but it was later shown to have been caused by an enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) strain that had acquired the genes to produce Shiga toxins, present in organic fenugreek sprouts.

Escherichia coli O104:H4 is an enteroaggregative Escherichia coli strain of the bacterium Escherichia coli, and the cause of the 2011 Escherichia coli O104:H4 outbreak. The "O" in the serological classification identifies the cell wall lipopolysaccharide antigen, and the "H" identifies the flagella antigen.

Pathogenic <i>Escherichia coli</i> Strains of E. coli that can cause disease

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Raymond Alan Dixon FRS is a British microbiologist at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, specialising on the molecular understanding of biological nitrogen fixation in bacteria. He was educated at the University of Reading and the University of Sussex.

Jörg Vogel is a German scientist in the field of RNA biology and microbiology. He holds a position as full professor, chairs the Institute for Molecular Infection Biology (IMIB) at the University of Würzburg, Germany, and is a founding Helmholtz-Institute director. Vogel studied biochemistry at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Imperial College London. After his PhD work (1996–1999) he performed postdoctoral research at the Uppsala University, Sweden and was an EMBO fellow at the Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel. From 2004 to 2009 he was a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology. Since 2009 he is a full professor at the IMIB and head of the institute as successor to Jörg Hacker. Furthermore, he is founding director of the Helmholtz-Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg that was established in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Urs Jenal</span>

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Jan Maree Tennent is an Australian scientist in the biomedical and animal health research sectors, and a member of the Australian Academy of Technology Science and Engineering.

Mark J. Pallen is a research leader at the Quadram Institute and Professor of Microbial Genomics at the University of East Anglia. In recent years, he has been at the forefront of efforts to apply next-generation sequencing to problems in microbiology and ancient DNA research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karen E. Nelson</span> Jamaican-born American microbiologist

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B. Brett Finlay, is a Canadian microbiologist well known for his contributions to understanding how microbes cause disease in people and developing new tools for fighting infections, as well as the role the microbiota plays in human health and disease. Science.ca describes him as one of the world's foremost experts on the molecular understanding of the ways bacteria infect their hosts. He also led the SARS Accelerated Vaccine Initiative (SAVI) and developed vaccines to SARS and a bovine vaccine to E. coli O157:H7. His current research interests focus on pathogenic E. coli and Salmonella pathogenicity, and the role of the microbiota in infections, asthma, and malnutrition. He is currently the UBC Peter Wall Distinguished Professor and a Professor in the Michael Smith Laboratories, Microbiology and Immunology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Co-director and Senior Fellow for the CIFAR Humans and Microbes program. He is also co-author of the book Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World and The Whole-Body Microbiome: How to Harness Microbes - Inside and Out - For Lifelong Health. Finlay is the author of over 500 publications in peer-reviewed journals and served as editor of several professional publications for many years.

Agnes Ullmann was a French microbiologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melanie Blokesch</span> German microbiologist

Melanie Blokesch is a German microbiologist. Her research focuses on Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium causing cholera. She is a professor of life sciences at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where she heads the Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alain Filloux</span> French microbiologist

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey Michael Gadd</span> British-Irish mycologist-microbiologist

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eliora Z. Ron</span> Israeli microbiologist

Eliora Zenziper Ron is an Israeli microbiologist who is the Secretary General of the European Academy of Microbiology and President of the International Union of Microbiology Societies.

References

  1. ↑ "European Academy of Microbiology" . Retrieved 2019-04-16.
  2. ↑ "The European Academy of Microbiology". Small Things Considered. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
  3. ↑ "Professor Jorg Vogel is New President of the EAM". Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
  4. ↑ "Members of the European Academy of Microbiology (EAM)". FEMS. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
  5. ↑ "Alain Filloux elected to European Academy of Microbiology | Imperial News | Imperial College London". Imperial News. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
  6. ↑ Papageorgiou, Nik (2018-01-30). "Melanie Blokesch elected into the European Academy of Microbiology".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ↑ "Cecília Arraiano elected to the European Academy of Microbiology — ITQB". www.itqb.unl.pt. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
  8. ↑ "Founding Members of the European Academy of Microbiology | Imperial News | Imperial College London". Imperial News.
  9. ↑ "Prof.dr.sc. Stipan Jonjić became a member of European academy of microbiology". Center of Excellence for Virus Immunology and Vaccines. 2016-04-19. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
  10. ↑ "Petra Dersch in Europäische Akademie für Mikrobiologie aufgenommen". Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung | Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research |.
  11. ↑ "Geoff Gadd and Tracy Palmer elected to European Academy of Microbiology | Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance". amr.dundee.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
  12. ↑ "Prof. Dr. Victor Sourjik is elected as a member of the European Academy of Microbiology (EAM)". www.mpi-marburg.mpg.de. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
  13. ↑ Karch, Helge; Denamur, Erick; Dobrindt, Ulrich; Finlay, B. Brett; Hengge, Regine; Johannes, Ludgers; Ron, Eliora Z.; Tønjum, Tone; Sansonetti, Philippe J.; Vicente, Miguel (September 2012). "The enemy within us: lessons from the 2011 European Escherichia coli O104:H4 outbreak". EMBO Molecular Medicine. 4 (9): 841–848. doi:10.1002/emmm.201201662. PMC   3491817 . PMID   22927122.
  14. ↑ "Microbial Pathogenesis Symposium – A European Tribute to the Life and Career of Stanley Falkow". FEMS. Retrieved 2019-04-18.
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