A microbial community consists of a multitude of functional biological entities, each with unique metabolic capacities. When properly organized, the assemblage of these biological entities represents a powerful resource. Especially for engineered systems, microbial resource management (MRM) is the ultimate objective, yet remains very challenging. Well-documented MRM concepts and tools should allow to steer complex microbial communities, leading to stable and reliable biotechnological processes. In this first international MRM symposium, the latest breakthroughs will be presented on more fundamental MRM concepts and on their applications in environmental technologies and nutritional/biomedical sciences.

Keynote speakers:
Cees Buisman: WETSUS, Leeuwarden and Wageningen University & Research centre, The Netherlands
Lars Angenent: Cornell University, USA
Ruth Ley: Cornell University, USA
Nathalie Delzenne: Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Jeroen Raes: Free University of Brussels and Flemish Institute for Biotechnology, Belgium
Tom Curtis: Newcastle University, UK
Marc Strous: Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Germany
Mark Van Loosdrecht: Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Ken Timmis: Braunschweig University of Technology, Germany
Willy Verstraete: Ghent University, Belgium

Registration fee (incl. program/abstract book, coffee, lunch, conference dinner and closing reception): €250 20% reduction on the registration fee for PhD students and early bird registration: €200 Fee for accompanying person (conference dinner at day 1 and closing reception at day 2): €80 Poster prizes: For each of the four sessions, two poster prizes will be awarded (1st prize: €200 and 2nd prize: €100) Upon request of the authors, oral contributions will be considered for publication in a Special Issue of Microbial Biotechnology. March 1st 2011: Deadline submission abstracts March 15th 2011: Notification of acceptance April 15th 2011: Deadline early bird registration