- Email: [email protected]
MEEGID VI: Sixth International Meeting on Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics of Infectious Diseases, Paris, 23–27 July 2002
Infection, Genetics and Evolution 2 (2003) 231–234
Conference report MEEGID VI: Sixth International Meeting on Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics of Infectious Diseases, Paris, 23–27 July 2002 Following Atlanta (1996), Montpellier (1997), Rio de Janeiro (1998), Dakar (1999) and Hyderabad (2000), MEEGID VI was hosted by a prestigious institution famous in the field of infectious diseases—the Pasteur Institute in Paris. The Institute is proud of a very new conference centre with a main conference room of 500 seats. The dates of the congress were selected so that people were able to jump from MEEGID VI to the meeting of International Union of Microbiology Societies (IUMS) organized almost next door at the Palais des Congrès, 27 July to 1 August. As for the former sessions, MEEGID VI was sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement en Coopération (IRD) in France. The Pasteur Institute provided its facilities at a reduced rate. The weight of organisation was borne by Mrs. Bénédicte Ecoutin, from the Pasteur Institute Conference Centre, Michel Tibayrenc’s collaborator Anne-Laure Bañuls, and M. Tibayrenc himself. The US organiser was CDC in the person of Altaf Lal, and the Institut Pasteur organisers were Geneviève Milon and Patrick Grimont. 23 July afternoon was devoted to first registrations (gently handled by Michel Tibayrenc’s students and collaborators, and his daughter Myrtille) and an informal welcome cocktail. Hetty Verhagen, Elsevier senior publishing editor for Microbiology, was on duty at the Elsevier booth with sample copies of many Elsevier journals, among which, of course, Infection, Genetics and Evolution. Hetty was kind enough to offer a working dinner to all members of the Infection, Genetics and Evolution editorial board present at MEEGID VI. The opening ceremony, 24 July morning, was dedicated to welcome talks from Patrick Grimont (Pasteur Institute), Altaf Lal (CDC Atlanta) and Michel Tibayrenc (IRD, Montpellier). The following innovations have been introduced to stimulate debates and emulation in MEEGID: (a) A new formula, the “express debate”, has been settled, as well as the traditional symposia. An express debate lasts 1 h only. A single speaker delivers a 20 min talk on a given debate, made as stimulating (provocative) as possible, followed by 40 min of very informal discussion in which the speaker also acts as chairperson. 1567-1348/02/$ – see front matter doi:10.1016/S1567-1348(03)00010-8
(b) One symposium was entirely organized by students. The two chairs were students, as well as all speakers (let us recall that the students pay no registration fees at MEEGID congresses). (c) Three awards were given: one for the best talk all categories, one for the best talk delivered by a student, one for the best talk delivered by a scientist from a developing country on a scientific/medical question especially relevant to developing countries. The 11 plenary lectures were as eclectic as possible, ranging from very fundamental (the Neodarwinian paradigm and the genomic era by Francisco Ayala, UC Davis) to bioterrorism (Jean-Claude Desenclos from the Institut National de Veille Sanitaire in Paris, and Steve Morse of CDC), through ruminant and human prion disease (Jeanne Brugère from the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire in Maisons-Alfort, and Dominique Dormont from the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, Fontenay-aux-Roses). Other plenary conferences included molecular epidemiology and public health (Altaf Lal), tuberculosis in Europe and in the rest of the world (Véronique Vincent, Pasteur Institute), the molecular epidemiology of infection with hepatitis C viruses (Harold Margolis, CDC), AIDS in Europe and in the rest of the world (Martine Peeters, IRD), Malaria vaccine (Lee Hall, NIH), and nosocomial infection and antibiotic resistance in Europe (Fernando Baquero, Ramon y Cajal Hospital, Madrid). Together, these lectures drew a rather exhaustive panorama of the main battlefields of the infectious front. Since the congress was hosted by a European country, emphasis was given to some diseases particularly problematic in Europe. Tikki Pang (WHO) presented the policy of his organization in genomic research on infectious diseases. As for the other MEEGID, the 14 symposiums were shared between specialized topics (for example: molecular epidemiology and genetics of Neisseria) and topics of more general interest (for example: modern methods of vector identification; human genetics and infectious diseases). The students roundtable was chaired by Alison Galvani (University of Oxford) and Christophe Boëte (University of Paris). Following the spirit of the journal Infection, Genetics and Evolution, the symposiums had a basically methodological goal, and included talks on pathogens, humans and vectors, with a holistic point of view. There were no express debates on specific pathogens or diseases. All were methodological (examples: antibiotic resistance, bioinformatics, species concept). Hooman Momen,
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Conference report / Infection, Genetics and Evolution 2 (2003) 231–234
editor-in-chief of the WHO bulletin, presented the future of academic journal publishing. A special evening debate was organized on 25 July, on the “European Centre for Infectious Diseases” (ECID) project. The project was presented by its initiator Michel Tibayrenc, and the debate was chaired by the four members of the steering committee of the project, Santiago Mas Coma (receiving editor of Infection, Genetics and Evolution for Spain), Jean-Claude Piffaretti (receiving editor for Switzerland), Marc Struelens (receiving editor for Belgium) and M. Tibayrenc (see editorial of the issue 1 (3) 2002 of the journal). MEEGID VI was concluded 26 July evening by a closing ceremony in which awards were announced and offered by Myrtille, daughter of Michel Tibayrenc. The winners of the awards were: (a) Best talk by a student: Sarra Jamieson (Cambridge University for medical research), for her talk on “Evidence for a Mycobacterial Susceptibility Gene on Human Chromosome 17q11.1-q21.31” presented in the symposium on human genetic susceptibility to infectious diseases. (b) Best talk “all categories”: James McInerney, Bioinformatics and Pharmacogenomics Laboratory, Biology Department, Maynooth, Ireland, for his talk on “Phylogeny of Bacteria Inferred from Complete Genome Sequences”, presented in the symposium on population structure, typing and identification of pathogens. (c) Best talk by a scientist from a developing country on a problem especially relevant to developing countries: Loubna Tazi, Genetics of Infectious Diseases Unit, IRD, Montpellier, France, for her talk on “Tuberculosis in Casablanca, Morocco: Genetic Typing for Population Genetics and Molecular Epidemiology” presented in the students symposium. A tasty farewell cocktail with a dance party ended MEEGID VI. The goal of the MEEGID congresses, together with Infection, Genetics and Evolution, is to stimulate the scientific community to be receptive to a holistic approach to genetics, evolution and molecular epidemiology of infectious diseases. MEEGID VI has been particularly successful from this point of view. Many diversified oral and poster presentations were given, and attendants were warmly en-
couraged to attend conferences beyond their own field of expertise. Next rendez-vous is MEEGID VII, Valencia, Spain, 19–23 July 2004. The congress will be held within the framework of the Eighth European Multicolloquium of Parasitology (EMOP VIII), and hosted by Santiago Mas Coma, the receiving editor of Infection, Genetics and Evolution for Spain. Michel Tibayrenc Editor-in-chief Infection, Genetics and Evolution Unit of Research “Genetics and Evolution of Infectious Diseases”, UMR CNRS/IRD 9926, IRD, BP 64501 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5, France Tel.: +33-4-67-41-61-97/67-41-62-07 fax: +33-4-67-41-62-99 E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Tibayrenc) URL: http://cepm.mpl.ird.fr
Photograph 1: On the podium. From left to right, Diana Villareal (Colombia), Céline Gauthier (France), Loubna Tazi (Morocco, award for best communication by a scientist from developing countries), all three Michel Tibayrenc’s Ph.D. students; Anne-Laure Bañuls (France; M. Tibayrenc’s collaborator, one of the main organisers of MEEGID VI), Myrtille Tibayrenc (France; M. Tibayrenc’s daugther; an Art student among scientists), M. Tibayrenc, Geneviève Million (France, Institut Pasteur organiser); Altaf Lal (USA, CDC organiser); Seyed Hasnain (MEEGID V organiser; Infection, Genetics and Evolution receiving editor for India).
Conference report / Infection, Genetics and Evolution 2 (2003) 231–234
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Photograph 2: Loubna Tazi (Morocco; award for best communication by a scientist from developing countries) just received her award from Myrtille Tibayrenc’s hands.
Photograph 3: Sarra Jamieson (Cambridge Institute for Medical Research), award for best communication by a student, shows her medal.
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Conference report / Infection, Genetics and Evolution 2 (2003) 231–234
Photograph 4: James McInerney (Bioinformatics and Pharmacogenomics Laboratory, NUI Maynooth, Ireland), award for best communication general category.
Conference report MEEGID VI: Sixth International Meeting on Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics of Infectious Diseases, Paris, 23–27 July 2002 Following Atlanta (1996), Montpellier (1997), Rio de Janeiro (1998), Dakar (1999) and Hyderabad (2000), MEEGID VI was hosted by a prestigious institution famous in the field of infectious diseases—the Pasteur Institute in Paris. The Institute is proud of a very new conference centre with a main conference room of 500 seats. The dates of the congress were selected so that people were able to jump from MEEGID VI to the meeting of International Union of Microbiology Societies (IUMS) organized almost next door at the Palais des Congrès, 27 July to 1 August. As for the former sessions, MEEGID VI was sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement en Coopération (IRD) in France. The Pasteur Institute provided its facilities at a reduced rate. The weight of organisation was borne by Mrs. Bénédicte Ecoutin, from the Pasteur Institute Conference Centre, Michel Tibayrenc’s collaborator Anne-Laure Bañuls, and M. Tibayrenc himself. The US organiser was CDC in the person of Altaf Lal, and the Institut Pasteur organisers were Geneviève Milon and Patrick Grimont. 23 July afternoon was devoted to first registrations (gently handled by Michel Tibayrenc’s students and collaborators, and his daughter Myrtille) and an informal welcome cocktail. Hetty Verhagen, Elsevier senior publishing editor for Microbiology, was on duty at the Elsevier booth with sample copies of many Elsevier journals, among which, of course, Infection, Genetics and Evolution. Hetty was kind enough to offer a working dinner to all members of the Infection, Genetics and Evolution editorial board present at MEEGID VI. The opening ceremony, 24 July morning, was dedicated to welcome talks from Patrick Grimont (Pasteur Institute), Altaf Lal (CDC Atlanta) and Michel Tibayrenc (IRD, Montpellier). The following innovations have been introduced to stimulate debates and emulation in MEEGID: (a) A new formula, the “express debate”, has been settled, as well as the traditional symposia. An express debate lasts 1 h only. A single speaker delivers a 20 min talk on a given debate, made as stimulating (provocative) as possible, followed by 40 min of very informal discussion in which the speaker also acts as chairperson. 1567-1348/02/$ – see front matter doi:10.1016/S1567-1348(03)00010-8
(b) One symposium was entirely organized by students. The two chairs were students, as well as all speakers (let us recall that the students pay no registration fees at MEEGID congresses). (c) Three awards were given: one for the best talk all categories, one for the best talk delivered by a student, one for the best talk delivered by a scientist from a developing country on a scientific/medical question especially relevant to developing countries. The 11 plenary lectures were as eclectic as possible, ranging from very fundamental (the Neodarwinian paradigm and the genomic era by Francisco Ayala, UC Davis) to bioterrorism (Jean-Claude Desenclos from the Institut National de Veille Sanitaire in Paris, and Steve Morse of CDC), through ruminant and human prion disease (Jeanne Brugère from the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire in Maisons-Alfort, and Dominique Dormont from the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, Fontenay-aux-Roses). Other plenary conferences included molecular epidemiology and public health (Altaf Lal), tuberculosis in Europe and in the rest of the world (Véronique Vincent, Pasteur Institute), the molecular epidemiology of infection with hepatitis C viruses (Harold Margolis, CDC), AIDS in Europe and in the rest of the world (Martine Peeters, IRD), Malaria vaccine (Lee Hall, NIH), and nosocomial infection and antibiotic resistance in Europe (Fernando Baquero, Ramon y Cajal Hospital, Madrid). Together, these lectures drew a rather exhaustive panorama of the main battlefields of the infectious front. Since the congress was hosted by a European country, emphasis was given to some diseases particularly problematic in Europe. Tikki Pang (WHO) presented the policy of his organization in genomic research on infectious diseases. As for the other MEEGID, the 14 symposiums were shared between specialized topics (for example: molecular epidemiology and genetics of Neisseria) and topics of more general interest (for example: modern methods of vector identification; human genetics and infectious diseases). The students roundtable was chaired by Alison Galvani (University of Oxford) and Christophe Boëte (University of Paris). Following the spirit of the journal Infection, Genetics and Evolution, the symposiums had a basically methodological goal, and included talks on pathogens, humans and vectors, with a holistic point of view. There were no express debates on specific pathogens or diseases. All were methodological (examples: antibiotic resistance, bioinformatics, species concept). Hooman Momen,
232
Conference report / Infection, Genetics and Evolution 2 (2003) 231–234
editor-in-chief of the WHO bulletin, presented the future of academic journal publishing. A special evening debate was organized on 25 July, on the “European Centre for Infectious Diseases” (ECID) project. The project was presented by its initiator Michel Tibayrenc, and the debate was chaired by the four members of the steering committee of the project, Santiago Mas Coma (receiving editor of Infection, Genetics and Evolution for Spain), Jean-Claude Piffaretti (receiving editor for Switzerland), Marc Struelens (receiving editor for Belgium) and M. Tibayrenc (see editorial of the issue 1 (3) 2002 of the journal). MEEGID VI was concluded 26 July evening by a closing ceremony in which awards were announced and offered by Myrtille, daughter of Michel Tibayrenc. The winners of the awards were: (a) Best talk by a student: Sarra Jamieson (Cambridge University for medical research), for her talk on “Evidence for a Mycobacterial Susceptibility Gene on Human Chromosome 17q11.1-q21.31” presented in the symposium on human genetic susceptibility to infectious diseases. (b) Best talk “all categories”: James McInerney, Bioinformatics and Pharmacogenomics Laboratory, Biology Department, Maynooth, Ireland, for his talk on “Phylogeny of Bacteria Inferred from Complete Genome Sequences”, presented in the symposium on population structure, typing and identification of pathogens. (c) Best talk by a scientist from a developing country on a problem especially relevant to developing countries: Loubna Tazi, Genetics of Infectious Diseases Unit, IRD, Montpellier, France, for her talk on “Tuberculosis in Casablanca, Morocco: Genetic Typing for Population Genetics and Molecular Epidemiology” presented in the students symposium. A tasty farewell cocktail with a dance party ended MEEGID VI. The goal of the MEEGID congresses, together with Infection, Genetics and Evolution, is to stimulate the scientific community to be receptive to a holistic approach to genetics, evolution and molecular epidemiology of infectious diseases. MEEGID VI has been particularly successful from this point of view. Many diversified oral and poster presentations were given, and attendants were warmly en-
couraged to attend conferences beyond their own field of expertise. Next rendez-vous is MEEGID VII, Valencia, Spain, 19–23 July 2004. The congress will be held within the framework of the Eighth European Multicolloquium of Parasitology (EMOP VIII), and hosted by Santiago Mas Coma, the receiving editor of Infection, Genetics and Evolution for Spain. Michel Tibayrenc Editor-in-chief Infection, Genetics and Evolution Unit of Research “Genetics and Evolution of Infectious Diseases”, UMR CNRS/IRD 9926, IRD, BP 64501 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5, France Tel.: +33-4-67-41-61-97/67-41-62-07 fax: +33-4-67-41-62-99 E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Tibayrenc) URL: http://cepm.mpl.ird.fr
Photograph 1: On the podium. From left to right, Diana Villareal (Colombia), Céline Gauthier (France), Loubna Tazi (Morocco, award for best communication by a scientist from developing countries), all three Michel Tibayrenc’s Ph.D. students; Anne-Laure Bañuls (France; M. Tibayrenc’s collaborator, one of the main organisers of MEEGID VI), Myrtille Tibayrenc (France; M. Tibayrenc’s daugther; an Art student among scientists), M. Tibayrenc, Geneviève Million (France, Institut Pasteur organiser); Altaf Lal (USA, CDC organiser); Seyed Hasnain (MEEGID V organiser; Infection, Genetics and Evolution receiving editor for India).
Conference report / Infection, Genetics and Evolution 2 (2003) 231–234
233
Photograph 2: Loubna Tazi (Morocco; award for best communication by a scientist from developing countries) just received her award from Myrtille Tibayrenc’s hands.
Photograph 3: Sarra Jamieson (Cambridge Institute for Medical Research), award for best communication by a student, shows her medal.
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Conference report / Infection, Genetics and Evolution 2 (2003) 231–234
Photograph 4: James McInerney (Bioinformatics and Pharmacogenomics Laboratory, NUI Maynooth, Ireland), award for best communication general category.