CAU students at the FCG-IGC/IBB PhD Course
The 3rd edition of the “SymbNET PhD Course on Host-Microbe Interactions” took place from the 13th to the 17th of November 2023 at the FCG-IGC, Oeiras, Portugal.
Organised by the SymbNET coordinator Luís Teixeira (FCG-IGC), the course featured lecturers from various institutes, including both SymbNET and external institutions.
During this one-week course on host-microbe symbiosis, with a particular focus on genomics and metabolomics, students had the chance to explore and discuss diverse biological models of symbiotic relationships, considering perspectives from both the host and microbe. The programme consisted of lectures and discussions of projects and papers and facilitated opportunities for networking.
As part of the FCG-IGC PhD program in Integrative Biology and Biomedicine (IBB), the course welcomed a group of 7 FCG-IGC/IBB students and 4 students from Kiel University (CAU) – Eva Tanneau and Clara Igelmann from the Environmental Genomics Group; Igor Duarte from the Marine Symbiosis Group (Prof. Gruber-Vodicka’s Lab), and Marjan Ghotbi from the Marine Microbial Ecology Group at GEOMAR.
In Eva Tanneau’s words, the course “was a very rewarding experience. I particularly appreciated lectures focused on methodological aspects, such as metabolomics and genomics, which will definitely be useful for my PhD project.” According to Eva, the course was also “the occasion to meet and share experience with other PhD students, in a very friendly atmosphere; We received a very nice welcome from the institute.”
To Igor Duarte, “The course was a great opportunity to learn and exchange ideas in a different high education setting, with lectures that focused on relevant topics concerning host-microbe interactions. We were challenged with the task to present a simple project on the last day, which also provided a hands-on learning experience that should be relevant for all early-career researchers, regardless of the field of expertise. The week-long format allowed us to get in touch with other PhD students and to many faculty members as well as external scientists, that shared some of their interesting experiment strategies and findings.”
Marjan Ghotbi considered that the course and the discussion project she engaged in, centered on the neurobiome “offered an exceptional educational experience, focusing on the intricate dynamics of host-microbiome interactions at both the cellular and molecular levels. For me, it served as a crucial piece that I needed to incorporate into my future career perspective.”
Finally, Clara Igelmann wrote “Overall, my personal experience with the SymbNET course on host-microbe interactions at the FCG-IGC was truly enjoyable! The course provided a broad overview of the complex relationship between hosts and their microbiota in an informative and engaging manner. In particular, the knowledge gained in the course on genomics and metabolomics will help me in the future by providing me with the methodological basis to study interactions within a meta-organism.”
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