Office of Science Research Shines at American Society for Microbiology Annual Meeting

Summary

The annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology was held in Washington, DC, the week of May 19. In a meeting that was, overall, dominated by medical microbiology, Office of Science research comprised about 11% of all posters present (some 200 out of a total of about 1800 posters) and about 10% of all oral presentations (nearly 40 of just under 400 presentations). Office of Science staff co-chaired (Marvin Frazier, SC-72; Sharlene Weatherwax, SC-14; Dan Drell, SC-72) or spoke (Ari Patrinos, SC-70) at scientific sessions as did SC-funded scientists. Office of Science research programs that were represented included the Microbial Genome Program, the Natural and Accelerated Bioremediation Research Program, the Genomes to Life Program, the Environmental Management Science Program, and the Biotechnological Investigations-Oceans Margin Program. Many other presentations at the meeting represented research not directly funded by SC, but enabled by SC’s support for the genomic sequencing of a large number of microbial genomes now being used for a diverse array of experiments.