The 2009 Gordon Conference on Microbial Population Biology will cover a diverse range of issues in the microbial sciences. Founded in evolutionary biology and with a strongly integrative approach, the Conference will cover a broad range of topics including: the dynamics and genetics of adaptation, evolutionary genomics, the evolution of protein structure and function and the evolution of virulence. The Conference draws scientists from a diversity of fields, promoting interactions among integrative and broad-thinking researchers in biology. As such it provides the ideal venue within which to shape new ways of investigation, particularly in areas such as infectious disease biology that benefit from a firm foundation in evolutionary biology.
The evolution of disease is increasingly seen as key to promoting public and individual health, animal welfare and agribusiness. The current out-break of swine flu is an example of an incessant evolutionary arms race between a disease and its hosts, one in which the pathogen continually out-evolves host immune defences. While much biomedical research is concerned with the mechanism and progression of disease at the molecular and clinical levels, little attention has been paid to understanding how virulence and transmission rates evolve, and what they evolve in response to. The Conference will explore microbial evolution in general, and emphasise the evolution of virulence, transmission rates and disease, and will increase understanding of the origins and spread of new pathogens.
