Life Science Encyclopedia

Bacteriophage are viruses of bacteria. They are likely the most numerous "organisms" on Earth and contributed greatly to the development of the disciplines of molecular biology and molecular genetics. This page is an attempt to gather up information and links regarding phage-based scientific meetings, past, present, and future. Consider beginning by viewing the meetings time line.

Scheduled upcoming phage meetings

2008 Bacteriophages: Nature and Exploitation

February 22, to be held in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, UK.

• meeting registration page

2008 5th Viral Ecology Group Meeting

March 14-15, to be held in Leicester, UK.

• meeting registration page

2008 Phage Biology, Ecology and Therapy Meeting

June 22-28 (approximate dates), to be held in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia.

• For more information contact Rezo Adamia [1] or Elizabeth Kutter [2].

2008 Phage Technology Meeting

July 26-29, to be held in Edinburgh, Scotland.

• Sessions include Vaccines and gene therapy vehicles; Food safety; Novel phage proteins: diagnostics and antimicrobials; Phages in the environment; Bioengineering and genomics; Phage therapy
• For more information contact David M. Donovan [3] or Jason Clark [4].

Meetings time line

Meetings are listed in order per year, but with years descending. Links are to descriptions found under either "scheduled upcoming phage meetings" or below this section as either ongoing phage meetings (i.e., Evergreen meetings, Phage Assembly conferences, Cold Spring Harbor meetings) or as one-time meetings or symposia.

1. 2008 Hertfordshire Bacteriophages: Nature and Exploitation
2. 2008 Leicester Viral Ecology Meeting
3. 2008 Tbilisi Phage Biology, Ecology, and Therapy meeting
4. 2008 Edinburgh Phage Technology meeting
5. 2007 Les Treilles meeting
6. 2007 Phage/Viral Assembly meeting
7. 2007 Cold Spring Harbor meeting
8. 2007 Evergreen meeting
9. 2007 Virus-ecology sympostium
10. 2007 Baikal Symposium
11. 2006 Texas meeting
12. 2006 Cold Spring Harbor meeting
13. 2005 Evergreen meeting
14. 2005 Tbilisi seminar
15. 2004 Phage summit (Florida)
16. 2003 Evergreen meeting
17. 2001 Evergreen meeting
18. 2000 Millennial meeting (Montreal)
19. 2000 Les Treilles meeting
20. 1999 Evergreen meeting

Please add to the above list as appropriate. Please do not let a need or desire to create links to within this document (or elsewhere) stop you from providing a (n accurate) listing of past, present, or future meetings. Somebody, somewhere will fill in the details if you don't have them. Alternatively, please send details to Steve Abedon care of www.phage.org.

Regular meetings

A number of phage meetings meet regularly. Much information is missing from the following listings and it is hoped that people who organize or attend these meetings will help to supply this information.

Evergreen meetings

All Evergreen meetings are as organized by Elizabeth Kutter and held on the Evergreen State College campus, Olympia, Washington. They have gone by at least two names: Evergreen International Phage Biology Meeting (2005 back to ???) and Bacteriophage T4 (International?) Meeting (??? back to ???).

• next Evergreen meeting

Evergreen, 2007

August 12-17.

• meeting overview page

Evergreen, 2005

August 7-12.

• meeting recap page

Evergreen, 2003

July 23-27.

• photos

Evergreen, 2001

• photo (scroll down a little)

Evergreen, 1999 and earlier

• 1999, 1997?, 1995?, 1993?, 1991, 1989, 1987, 1985, 1983?, earlier?

Biennial Phage/Viral Assembly Conferences

• Conference overview page

Phage/Viral Assembly Conference, 2007

May 25-30, hosted by Alan Davidson, held in Barrie, Ontario, Canada.

• meeting overview page

Cold Spring Harbor Bacteria and Phage Meeting

Many of the years of these meetings are not listed here (and need to be), plus a history of these meetings needs to be presented as well as comments on the current status of these meetings with regard to the degree to which they consider phage. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is found on Long Island, New York, but these meetings are not always held in Cold Spring Harbor.

Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages, 2007

August 7-12.

• meeting announcement page

Cold Spring Harbor, 2006

August 22-27.

• meeting announcement page

Cold Spring Harbor, 2002

August 20-25.

One-time meetings or symposia

2007 International Baikal Symposium on Microbiology

September 10-15, this symposium is titled "Microorganisms in Ecosystems of Lakes, Rivers, and Reservoirs" was held in Irkutsk – Listvyanka settlement (campus «Pribaykal’skiy»), Russia. Approximately one-third (or slightly fewer) of the topics to be covered seem to be phage-related.

2007 Symposium, Ecology of Viruses

September 3-4, organized by Environmental Microbiology Group/Virus Ecology Group/Society for General Microbiology, held at University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.

• meeting overview page

2007, Le Treilles meeting on The Evolution, Diversity and Ecology of the Dark Matter of the Biosphere: Bacteriophages

March 26-31, sponsored by the Fondation des Treilles, held in Tourtour, France.

• meeting overview page

2006, Texas, Evergreen Phage and Virus Genomics and Ecology Meeting

May 12-15, organized by Philip Serwer, Stephen C. Haries, and Elizabeth Kutter, held at Texas A&M University-Kingsville Campus, Kingsville, Texas.

• meeting web page

2005, International Phage Seminar

November 10-11, organized by J.S.C. “Biochimpharm” and Eliava Scientific-Research Institute of Bacteriophages, Microbiology and Virology, held in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia.

• draft seminar agenda

2004, Phage Summit

August 1-5, ASM meeting organized by Ry Young, held in Key Biscayne, Florida.

• Adhya, S., L. Black, D. Friedman, G. Hatfull, K. Kreuzer, C. Merril, A. Oppenheim, F. Rohwer, and R. Young. 2005. 2004 ASM Conference on the New Phage Biology: the 'Phage Summit'. Mol. Microbiol. 55:1300 full text

2002, International Union of Microbiology Societies/International Congress of Virology

July 27-August 1, held in Paris

• there were symposia devoted to phage:

1. The phage genome (conveners H. Krisch, R. Hendrix)
2. Phage lysis and lysogeny (J. Maniloff, T. Alatossava)
3. Applied and environmental phage biology (H-W. Ackermann, E. Kutter)

2000, Algal Virus Workshop

May 28-June 1, held in Galeway, Ireland.

• comment: a previous such meeting had been held in 1998.

2000, Bacteriophages in Biotechnology

July 13, held in London, UK.

2000, Millennial Phage Meeting

June 7-11, organized by Michael Dubow, held at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

2000, Le Treilles meeting on Viruses: Origins, Evolution, and Biodiversity

July 24-30, sponsored by the Fondation des Treilles, held in Tourtour, France. Proceedings published in vol. 154 of the series Research in Microbiology and summarized in Balter, M. 2000. "Evolution on life's fringes." Science Vol. 289. no. 5486, pp. 1866 - 1867 (15 September 2000) DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5486.1866Science 289:1866-1867. abstract & pay article

1998, International Symposium on Microbial Ecology

August, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

• comment: There was a symposia as part of this meeting on "Viruses as Regulators of Microbial Systems".
• ISME home page

Additional links

• Meetings of interest to phage biologists (page from ASM Division M)
• Microbial Population Biology Gordon conference (typically has at least some phage-based talks and -interested attendees)
• 1941 meeting of the American Physical Society, in Philadelphia (brief discussion of)