Cross-Channel C. difficile Forum
Welcome
The 3CdF organising committee is happy to welcome you to the 1st Cross-Channel C. difficile Forum
Here you will find more information about the objectives of the event, the speakers and the schedule.
You can also register and submit an abstract directly through this website.
Objectives
- Stimulate UK-French collaborations on C. difficile
- Provide a discussion forum for ECRs researching C. difficile
- Networking opportunities for ECRs with established PIs
Invited Speakers
3CdF is focused on ECRs who will present their work. We also have 3 invited speakers - a world leader C. difficile researcher, and representatives from the research community in France and the UK.
Keynote: Prof Dr Maja Rupnik
Maja Rupnik is a Head of Department for microbiological research at NLZOH (National laboratory for health, environment and food) in Maribor, Slovenia. At the Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor, she teaches medicine and dental students. Clostridium difficile is one of her main research interests since her PhD in 1998. Her research group works on environmental aspect of C. difficile, in development of methods for C. difficile isolation from various reservoirs and in genomic aspects of interspecies variation in C. difficile. Other research topics cover gut microbiota and molecular epidemiology of various antibiotic resistant pathogens from the One Health perspective. She leads the Organising Committee of International C. difficile Symposium (ICDS) organised every two or three years in Slovenia. Since 2023, she is Editor-in-Chief of Anaerobe journal.
France - Prof. Claire Janoir
The research developed in Prof Janoir's laboratory aims at understanding the interactions between the host and C. difficile which lead to the colonisation of the host. To address this question, the lab combines several approaches: characterisation of surface-associated proteins involved in colonisation and their regulation by environmental conditions and global analysis of bacterial adaptation to the host by genome-wide in vivo transcriptomics. More recently, she has developed studies on the link between host colonisation and the formation of biofilm by C. difficile.
UK - A/Prof Meera Unnikrishnan
After a PhD at Imperial College London studying the biological functions ofStreptococcus pyogenes superantigens and postdoctoral experience at Harvard University investigating the mechanisms of host modulation by Trypanosoma cruzi and type VII secretion systems in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, she joined Novartis Vaccines in Italy, as a Senior Scientist to investigate vaccine candidates from Staphylococcus aureus and C. difficile. Current work as Associate Professor at Warwick University focuses on understanding bacterial mechanisms underlying C. difficile colonisation and persistence. One of our current interests include the development of new cell-based systems to enable pathogen-host-microbiota interactions.
Funding & Sponsorship:
FEMS - Federation of European Microbiology Societies
https://fems-microbiology.org/opportunities/cross-channel-c-difficile-forum-3cdf/
Don Whitley Scientific
Labo & Co
https://www.laboandco.com/
Invited speakers
3CdF focuses primarily on presentations from Early Career Researchers, but will also include a key note from a world-leading expert in C. difficile and representatives from the C. difficile research communities in the UK and France, with one invited speaker from each country.
All other talks and posters, including a selection of 3 min talks, will be presented by ECRs based in UK and France.
Prof Dr Maja Rupnik
Professor of Microbiology, University of Maribor and Microbiologist at NLZOH
Maja Rupnik is a Head of Department for microbiological research at NLZOH (National laboratory for health, environment and food) in Maribor, Slovenia. At Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor, she teaches medicine and dental students. Clostridium difficile is one of her main research interests since her PhD in 1998. Her research group works on environmental aspect of C. difficile, in development of methods for C. difficile isolation from various reservoirs and in genomic aspects of interspecies variation in C. difficile. Other research topics cover gut microbiota and molecular epidemiology of various antibiotic resistant pathogens from the One Health perspective. She leads the Organizing Committee of International C. difficile Symposium (ICDS) organized every two or three years in Slovenia. Since 2023, she is Editor-in-Chief of Anaerobe journal.
Prof Claire Janoir
Professor of Bacteriology, Faculty of Pharmacie, Université Paris-Saclay
The research developed in Prof Janoir's laboratory aims at understanding the interactions between the host and Clostridioides difficile which lead to the colonisation of the host. To address this question, the lab combines several approaches: characterisation of surface-associated proteins involved in colonisation and their regulation by environmental conditions and global analysis of bacterial adaptation to the host by genome-wide in vivo transcriptomics. More recently, I developed studies on the link between host colonisation and the formation of biofilm by C. difficile.
A/Prof Meera Unnikrishnan
After completing PhD at Imperial College London studying the biological functions ofStreptococcus pyogenes superantigens, she moved to Harvard Unviersity, first with an American Heart Association post-doctoral fellowship investigating mechanisms of host modulation by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, then studying type VII secretion systems Mycobacterium tuberculosis pathogenesis. In 2009, she joined Novartis Vaccines, Italy, and investigated the functions of vaccine candidates from Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium difficile. She joined the University of Warwick as Assistant Professor of Molecular Bacteriology in 2013, where her group focuses on understanding bacterial mechanisms underlying C. difficile colonisation and persistence. One of our current interests include the development of new cell-based systems to enable pathogen-host-microbiota interactions.
Location
Université Paris-Saclay
17 avenue des Sciences Orsay, Paris France, 91400Registration period
March 17, 2024 - 10:00 until June 17, 2024 - 00:00
Contact us
If you have any questions, please contact Paula.salgado@ncl.ac.uk .
