Biography:

My name is Ameena Abdulla Al-Malki. I am the head of Genetic Engineering Department (Agricultural research) at the Ministry of Environment in Doha Qatar. I had training in the following courses: Detection of GMOs in Agricultural and Food Products, Steps of scientific research at the genomic core (University Weill Cornell medical college) in Qatar, DNA Marker Applications for Genetic Diversity Analysis, Specialist training on Principles and Techniques of Molecular Typing and Fingerprinting, Applied Biosystems 3130 Genetic Analyzer, 7900HT Fast Real-Time PCR system and Veriti 96 Well Fast thermal Cycler. My work includes date palm somatic embryogenesis and plant tissue culture, molecular biology and biotechnology as well as statistical analysis

Abstract:

Vibrio species are highly abundant in the marine environment and can be detected in sea water, marine algae and animals. This study investigates the presence of Vibrio in Qatari marine water using traditional microbiology methods as well as exploring the novelty of this species by studying their genetic diversity.

Biography:

Reem Alhaidose is pursuing his PhD at the University of Hull. His research interest include the animal and plant evolution and to discover novel results.

Abstract:

Cyprinid fish from the Carassius auratus complex are native to Asia but have been introduced to non-native habitats throughout the world. The C. auratus complex includes sexually reproducing, diploid as well as triploid and polyploidy individuals which predominately reproduce asexually through gynogenesis. Due to this variation in reproductive mode the C. auratus complex is an ideal system for studying evolution of unisexual reproduction. The evolutionary relationship between the different reproductive modes is however poorly understood. Author has used a comprehensive phylogeographic analysis based on mitochondrial DNA (cyt b) and including 10 native populations and 35 invasive populations from Europe and Australia to identify major phylogenetic lineages examine different models of colonisation and spread within the invasive range. Furthermore, 199 individuals were genotyped at 6 microsatellite loci to determine their level of ploidy and reproductive mode. A total of 158 cyt b haplotypes from seven highly divergent phylogenetic lineages were identified. Author’s analysis showed that Southern China is the centre diversity and that there is a geographic overlap between lineages indicating recent secondary contact. Invasive population originate predominately from two phylogenetic lineages from the northern range of the native distribution. The microsatellite results showed that most the native populations consisted of a mixture of diploids and triploids but were dominated by triploid individuals. In contrast invasive populations showed a considerable variety in reproductive mode ranging from purely diploid to purely triploid and mixed populations. Interestingly, within the invasive range C. auratus, diploids are dominant in older Eastern European populations whereas triploid forms are dominant in more recently established Central European populations. This can be interpreted that a transition from the diploid form to triploid form which occurred after invasive population became established.

Biography:

Kittipong Laosuwan is currently having his PhD in Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong. Ha has interest in microbiology especially developing an alternative medicine from local herb to fight against oral pathogenic bacteria. As a fellow dentist he aims to develop a medical modality to improve oral health not just only treatment but prevention for better life.

Abstract:

Aim: The aims of this study are to investigate the abilities of Centella asiatica crude extract preventing the Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) biofilm formation and development and the ability to neutralize the virulent factors gingipain and fimbriae function.

Method: The P. gingivalis (strain ATCC33277) was cultured in suspension with TSB medium supplement with vitamin, hemin, menadione and yeast extract. The aqueous extraction was performed to crudely extract from Centella asiatica leaves with pure water, the crude extract was filtered and freeze dried before dissolved in PBS at concentration 0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2.5, 5, 10 mg/ml. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined for P. gingivalis in planktonic stage. The P. gingivalis biofilm was form in 96-wells plate with chemically defied medium for determining the biofilm formation inhibition effect and inhibitory effect on biofilm development by treating the bacteria before or during the biofilm formation respectively. The biofilm volume was measured with crystal violet assay. The toxicity to immortalized human periodontal ligament cell (ihPDL cell) was determined with MTT assay.

Result: The extract had no toxicity to ihPDL cell at all tested concentration (P>0.05). The extract was able to inhibit the P. gingivalis planktonic growth at concentration of 10 mg/ml. The biofilm volume was significantly reduced at concentration of 2.5 mg/ml for biofilm formation inhibition effect and at 0.25 mg/ml for inhibitory effect on biofilm development (P<0.05).

Conclusion: The Centella asiatica crude extract has a potential to inhibit biofilm formation and development even at lower concentration than MBC. This indicates that the extract might have alternative ways to inhibit the biofilm formation.

Biography:

Susanne Aileen Funke is the Vice President for Research and Professor for Molecular Biology at the Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Before, she was Group Leader in the Institute of Structural Biology and Biophysics of the Research Centre Jülich. she has obtained her PhD in Biology at the University of Duesseldorf, Germany, after performing studies in Groningen, the Netherlands, and Marseille, France and Postdoctoral studies at the Institute for Physical Biology, Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf, Germany. She has published more than 35 papers in reputed journals and has co-authored more than 12 patents.

Abstract:

The gram-positive bacterium Listeria monocytogenes is the agent of listeriosis, a hazardous foodborne infection, a comparably rare disease, but the fatality rate is up to 30% despite antibiotic treatment. Listeria monocytogenes enters mammalian cells by inducing its own phagocytosis. The listerial supermolecule internalin mediates microorganism adhesion and invasion of animal tissue cells within thehuman bowel through specific interaction with its host cell receptor E-cadherin.Here, we describe the selection of InlA specific 12meric peptides via phage display using a large peptide library with more than one billion different peptides. We demonstrate that the selected peptides bind to recombinant InlA protein as well as to Listeria monocytogenes cells. We could demonstrate in vitro that the interaction between InlA and E-cad could be inhibited by some of the peptides. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the specific selection of InlA binding peptides. They might be a starting point for the development of novel diagnostic tools or therapeutic approaches.

Biography:

I'm a third year PhD student enrolled at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Spain. Here at UAB, I'm a part of the microbial biosensor group in which we tend to develop sensitive, cheap and fast detection tools for industrial or public health applications. My work is to develop microbial detection and quantification methods in clear and turbid media or on paper, by using optical, colorimetric or fluorescence readings. Also, I'm part of a diagnostic group at the University Hospital of Vall d'Hebron in Barcelona, Spain. Here, the focus is to develop diagnostic and monitoring tools for infectious microorganisms. My role is to implement and optimize different colorimetric or fluorescent immunological assays for virus detection and to make it as sensitive and fast as possible.

During the academic year, I hold practical classes in basic microbiology for the UAB students

Abstract:

Since 1959 with the proposal of Double Agar Layer (DAL) method for phage detection and quantification, many sophisticated methods have emerged meanwhile. However, many of them are either too complex/expensive or insensitive to replace routine utilization of DAL method in clinical, environmental and industrial environments. For that purpose, we have explored an alternative method for the detection and quantification of bacteriophages that fulfills the criteria of being rapid, simple and inexpensive. In this paper we have developed a method based on the analysis of optical density kinetics in bacterial cultures exposed to phage-containing samples. Although the decrease in optical density caused by cell lysis was one of the first observable consequences of the effect of viral infection in bacterial cultures, the potential of the method for the assessment of phage abundance has never been fully exploited. In this work we carry out a detailed study of optical density kinetics in phage-infected bacterial cultures, as a function of both, phage abundance and initial concentration of the host organisms. In total, 90 different combinations of bacteria/phage concentrations have been used. The data obtained provide valuable information about sensitivity ranges, duration of the assay, percentages of inhibition and type of lysing behavior for each phage concentration. The method described can detect, as few as 10 phage particles per assay volume after a phage incubation period of 3.5h. The duration of the assay can be shortened to 45 min at the expense of losing sensitivity and increasing the limit of detection to 108 pfu/ml. Despite using non-sophisticated technology, the method described has shown sensitivity and response time comparable to other high-end methods. The simplicity of the technology and of the analytical steps involved, make the system susceptible of miniaturization and automation for high-throughput applications which can be implemented in routine analysis in many environments