Priority Program 1316: administration and conferences

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Michael Hensel
• Subject Area: Parasitology and Biology of Tropical Infectious Disease Pathogens
• Term: from 2008 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 72169378

The priority program 'Host-adapted metabolism of bacterial pathogens' investigates the metabolic adaptation of bacterial pathogens to host cells and organisms. The program has led to an interdisciplinary network of research groups with expertise in infection biology, bioanalytics and bioinformatics and allowed to address the complex metabolic interrelation between host and pathogen. Such analyses could previously rarely be performed due to the high demands in methodology and instrumentation. The participating groups investigate clinically important bacterial pathogens with an intracellular or extracellular lifestyle, food-borne pathogens or pathogens of plants. The isotopolog technique has a central role in many of these approaches. Due to recent advances in the sensitivity of this technique, it is now possible to analyze metabolic fluxes with high resolution during infection. A platform 'bioanalytics' was established that offers isotopolog profiling techniques demanded by a large number of participating groups. Of equally central importance is the platform 'bioinformatics' for the modelling of metabolic fluxes, for the generation of bioinformatics tools for analyses of data from metabolom and isotopolom approaches and for database generation. In April 2009, the priority program held the first international conference ‘Metabolism Meets Virulence’. The administrative project applied for should support the coordination, including an administrative assistant, travel and lumps fund for administrative support. Within the second phase from 2011 to 2014, two scientific conferences are planned, for which funding is requested. The international conference Metabolism Meets Virulence 2' should take place in 2013 and should extend international collaboration and visibility of the priority program. In 2014, a national summary symposium is planned with participation of all priority program members and additional keynote speakers.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1316: Host-adapted Metabolism of Bacterial Pathogens