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The “It MA(t)TERs” Conference 2024: Exploring microbes across land and sea
Monday, May 13th: Kicking off with excitement
A sense of happy excitement and rush filled the upper floors of the MPI building: After all the hard work by the organizing team, the 8th edition of It MA(t)TERs conference finally began!
We traditionally start the It MA(t)TERs conference with ice-breaking games to help scientists get to know each other. Although the two institutes focus on very different environments, this did not stop the participants from having fruitful discussions. The shared common ground of being PhD students and random facts about Bremen and Marburg helped the two institutes bond, always leaving room for informal scientific discussions.
This year, the It MA(t)TERs conference featured three interconnected topics: microbial systems and their adaptations, molecular interactions and communication, and computational biology and bioinformatics. Through these topics, scientists gained a wider understanding of how microbes adapt to environmental changes, how their study can be achieved using computational methods, and how dynamic interactions occur between microbes at the intracellular level.
An inspiring note marked the beginning of the first session as Dr. Greta Reintjes, leader of an Emmy Noether Junior Research Group at the MPI in Bremen (and one of the co-founders of the It MA(t)TERs conference in 2017), inspired the audience with highlights of her scientific career. We were also honored to have Annegret Lorf, MPG-coordinator of the International Max Planck Research Schools (IMPRS), visit our MarMic program.
After the sessions concluded, the students from Marburg visited the inner city of Bremen, with Bremen students acting as their tour guides.
Tuesday, May 14th: Exploring Microbial Interactions and Bioinformatics
Dr. Martina Preiner, head of the newly established Geochemical Protoenzymes Group at the MPI Marburg, told us in her keynote about the way microbes actively interact with rocks at a cellular level. Her research aims to decipher microbial behaviors and functions in relation to geological surfaces.
After the coffee break, Dr. Iva Veseli from Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB) at the University of Oldenburg opened a session on Bioinformatics by discussing the importance of effectively using bioinformatics techniques in biological research, and the challenges one faces applying computational strategies to biological data.
Wednesday, May 15th: Getting in touch with marine research technology and a Science Communication Workshop
On the last day, attendees visited the MPI Bremen facilities. They explored the DeepSea Lander System and other sampling systems. Additionally, they got to know two essential pieces of equipment for a marine microbiologist: the confocal laser scanning microscope and the transmission electron microscope.
In total, eleven students from Marburg attended the conference. Combined with contributions from Bremen students, we showcased 20 posters and featured eleven student presentations. Additionally, we had the pleasure of hosting Dusica Rados, the IMPRS coordinator from Marburg, during the event.
Moreover, in a fishbowl discussion about science communication with engaged researchers and professional science communicators the attendees were able to dig into exciting discussions and get answers to their questions on the topic.
The atmosphere of the conference was very inspiring, and we received a lot of positive feedback about the program and organization. PhD representatives from Bremen and Marburg look forward to many more inspiring It MA(t)TERs conferences. We thank the enormous effort of the MPI PhD organizing team for making this conference possible!
Photos
Organizing team
