An ad hoc committee will plan and host a public seminar series in Washington, DC on the chemistry of microbiomes and the mechanisms by which microbial communities communicate. The series of four seminars will take place over a four-month period, with each month focusing on a particular microbiome system-- the human microbiome, the marine microbiome and earth microbiomes-- and the last month focusing on commonalities and differences regarding the chemistry of all three microbiome systems. Speakers and participants are invited to consider the role of chemistry in microbial communities, including microbe-microbe signaling and host-microbe interactions. In examining the chemistries of these interactions across systems, commonalities and differences will be considered, and potential avenues for future research will be discussed. Speakers are asked to consider the following questions:
- What is the current state of the art of research on the chemistry of microbiomes in this system?
- What opportunities and challenges exist for research in this area?
- Are there particular technical challenges that must be addressed when doing work in this area?
- What opportunities do you see for future research for chemists on this and other systems?
The seminar series will also be webcast live on the Chemical Sciences Roundtable website and later archived. Extensive outreach by CSR members and staff will take place prior to the series to inform the science community.
The goals of this seminar series are as follows:
1. Inform scientist, engineers, policy makers, federal and state managers, and other interested parties about the chemical interactions within microbial communities
2. Inform chemical scientists, engineers, and researchers in other relevant fields in industry and academia about the current state of research across different systems and highlight potential areas for further research
Three speakers will be invited for each seminar and will be asked to contribute an individually authored paper which will be compiled and published as proceedings from the seminar series. The proceedings will be published online and in print.
Note that since this topic is of broad interest within DELS, several boards will be consulted, including BESR, BANR, BLS, and OSB.