On Thursday, October 17, about 70 researchers from Northern Germany met at the venue "Seeburg" of Kiel University. This "NordInfect' meeting is the fourth of its kind and enables researchers to exchange novel scientific findings and present new technologies for a better molecular understanding of bacteria. Internationally acclaimed speakers as well as young scientists got the opportunity to present the results of their experimental work.

The participants of the symposium are working at over 10 different research institutions in Kiel, Hamburg, Borstel, Lübeck, Jülich und Greifswald. "The big interest in the symposium shows the strength of bacteriology research in Northern Germany", says Dr. Daniel Unterweger, co-organizer of the symposium and research group leader at the Institute of Experimental Medicine at Kiel University and the University Clinic Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Kiel. Professor Holger Sondermann, scientific director of the Center for Structural Systems Biology in Hamburg, adds "We have highly specialized technologies that enable us to study molecular mechanisms of bacteria in great detail. The symposium makes a big contribution in making these local technologies available to other researchers of the area."

The presented research projects address key question of the field such as how bacterial pathogens cause disease, how bacteria in the microbiota contribute to health in an organism, which role do bacteria play in the biogeochemical cycle, how can bacteria be used for biotechnological applications. The keynote lecture was presented by the internationally acclaimed researcher Professor Stefan Seeger from the University of Zurich. His work gave insight into the transport of molecules across bacterial membranes.

This year's symposium was funded by the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1182 "Origin and function of metaorganisms" at Kiel University, and the priority research area Kiel Life Science (KLS) of Kiel University.