This is a Marine Genomics workshop under the auspices of the US- European Commission Taskforce on Biotechnology Research to occur in October, 2008 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. The goal of this workshop is to bring together marine microbiologists, bioinformaticians and biotechnologists to explore future applications of (meta)genomics for basic and biotechnological research. These goals are consistent with the recommendations of the US-EC Taskforce on Biotechnology Research. Since the previous workshop was held in the United States, the location for this next workshop has been established by colleagues in Europe. The workshop will be examining two broad themes: investigating marine microbial adaptation, biochemistry, physiology and ecology through (meta)genomics and 2) accessing marine microbial (meta)genomics for industrial applications. These themes will be addressed in four sessions: 1) current issues being addressed in marine microbiology, 2) technological hurdles that still exist in marine microbial (metagenomics), 3) biocatalysis, drug discovery and industrial production based on information obtained from marine microbes and 4) laws, regulations, intellectual property rights and ethical considerations involved in marine microbial biotechnology. The outcome of the presentations and discussions will be a workshop report which documents the highlights of the major findings, abstracts of the presentations and the conclusions and recommendations from each session. It will also include challenges and potential areas for EC/US collaboration on the interface between marine (meta)genomics and marine biotechnology.
