Scientific Program & Dinner symposium
Thursday 11 July 2024
Scientific sessions - Day 1
8:00-8:50: Registration (tea, coffee and refreshments provided)
8:50-9:00 Introduction Dr Dan Worthley (Colonoscopy Clinic)
Session 1: Microbial Bioengineering Chair: Prof. Gene Tyson
9:00-9:45 “The Art and Science of Synthetic Biology: Bioengineering microbial therapeutics” Prof. Jeff Hasty (UCSD)
9:45-10:00 “Using metabolomics to inform engineering of tumour-homing bacteria” Dr Rebekah De Nys (University of Adelaide)
10:00-10:15 “Engineering plasmid copy number heterogeneity for dynamic
microbial adaptation” Shalni Kumar (UCSD)
10:15-10:30 “Engineer, Adapt, Shuffle, Test: Gene circuit pipeline for complex environmental conditions” Joanna Zhang (UCSD)
10:30-11:05 Morning tea (tea, coffee and refreshments provided)
Session 2: Host and Microbes: Mapping a complex system Chair: Dr Erin Shanahan
11:05-11:35 “Systems Biology: From biological data to wisdom” Prof. Lars Nielsen (University of Queensland)
11:35-12:05 “Commensalism along the gastrointestinal tract” Prof. Gabrielle Belz (University of Queensland)
12:05-12:35 “The Australian Human Microbiome Biobank” Prof. Gene Tyson (QUT)
12:35-13:30 Lunch (food, tea, coffee and refreshments provided)
Session 3: Clinical Pathways to Microbial Healthcare Chair: A/Prof. Graham Radford-Smith
13:30-14:00 “Australia’s investment in clinical trials” Prof. John Prins (Health Translation Qld)
14:00-14:30 “Can pet dogs help to leap the ‘Valley of Death’ in microbial healthcare translation?" Prof. Rachel Allavena (University of Queensland)
14:30-15:00 “Using first in class donor derived microbiome therapy for drug discovery” Dr Sam Costello (BiomeBank)
15:00-15:30 “How the microbiome modifies cancer immunotherapy” Dr Erin Shanahan (University of Sydney)
Thursday 11 July 2024
Dinner symposium
16:00-18:00 Drinks and canapés on the Terrace at Customs House overlooking the Brisbane River
18:00 Dinner (3 course dinner and drinks provided)
18:30-19:20 Dinner presentation “Cellular medicine: life healing life”, Prof. Siddhartha Mukherjee (Columbia University)
19:30-19:50 “Seeing is believing: beautiful microbes in medicine” Camilo Rey-Bedón & Paige Steppe (UCSD)
22:00 Dinner concludes
Friday 12 July 2024
Scientific sessions - Day 2
8:00-8:30 Arrive
Session 1: Microbiome in Health and Disease Chair: Prof. Jeff Hasty
8:30-9:15 “How microbes make us who we are” Prof. Rob Knight (UCSD)
9:15-9:45 “Fibre and the microbiome – good, bad or indifferent” Dr Heidi Staudacher (Deakin University)
9:45-10:15 “Disorders of gut-brain interaction and the microbiome” Prof. Nicholas Talley (University of Newcastle)
10:15-10:45 Morning tea (tea, coffee and refreshments provided)
Session 2: Microbial Diagnostics and Therapies Chair: Dr Sam Costello
10:45-11:15 “Metapanel: from profiling to pathology” Dr David Wood (Microba)
11:15-11:45 “Microbial Testing in Clinical Care: Embracing an integrated approach to gut health” Dr Abi Marsh & Assoc. Prof. Graham Radford-Smith (Integrated Gut Health)
11:45-12:15 “Microba’s experience of a first-in-human clinical trial” Dr Pariac Ocuiv, (Microba)
12:15-13:10 Lunch (food, tea, coffee and refreshments provided)
Session 3: Engineered and Evolved Microbial Solutions Chair: Prof. Lars Nielsen
13:10-13:40 “Bacterial biodetection of cell free DNA” Dr Josephine Wright (SAHMRI)
13:40-13:55 “Remodelling tumour microenvironments through host-microbial interfaces” Katie O’Connor (UCSD)
13:55-14:10 “Tumour educated bacteria: evolving colonisation” Julia Leeflang (University of Adelaide)
14:10-14:25 “Evolution and engineering of bacterial biosensors” Alyssa Chiang (UCSD)
14:25-14:40 “Engineering bacterial populations” Austin Doughty (UCSD)
14:40-15:20 Afternoon tea (tea, coffee and refreshments provided)
Session 4: Microbial Contributions to Health and Disease Chair: Prof. Gabrielle Belz
15:20-15:50 “The upper respiratory tract microbiome and the potential of microbial therapeutics” Dr Seweryn Bialasiewicz (University of Queensland)
15:50-16:20 “Cognobiome: novel microbiome interventions to improve cognitive performance” Dr Emily Hoedt (University of Newcastle)
16:20-16:50 “Microbial drivers of Intestinal Inflammation” Assoc. Prof. Jakob Begun (University of Queensland)
16:50 Thank you to sponsors, speakers & supporters Prof. Jeff Hasty
17:00 Microbial Healthcare Symposium concludes