Molecular mechanisms in evolution and ecology

Overview

Funded by EMBO for excellence in the life sciences.

This conference will take place at EMBL Heidelberg, with the option to attend virtually.

Registration is not yet open for this event. If you are interested in receiving more information please register your interest.

Conference overview

The focus of this conference series is on interspecies and cell-environment interactions across living organisms, aiming to highlight the latest technological advances, amplify scientific and societal focus on biodiversity, and showcase studies on the vital role of microbes in planetary ecosystems.

Microbes are a major driver of ecological and evolutionary processes. With the advances in omics, microbial diversity can now be catalogued at an unprecedented scale, but the molecular mechanisms that drive ecological and evolutionary changes in microbial populations, phylogenetic clades and ecological communities often remain elusive. To obtain mechanistic insight we need to bridge methods, disciplines and viewpoints, a purpose that this conference has served well in its previous editions.

The 2026 meeting will bring together researchers from a wide range of fields and microbial systems that aim to gain mechanistic insights on major outstanding ecological and evolutionary questions or that develop novel experimental / computational approaches for doing so.

Keynote lectures at the start and end of the meeting will focus on the ecology and evolution of symbiosis. In each of the four sessions invited speakers who are at the forefront of their research domain alongside short talks selected from abstracts will cover a broad range of questions and study systems.

Session topics

• Under the hood: molecular mechanisms underlying adaptation
• Models in action: models in ecology and evolution
• Trajectories of evolution: dissecting evolutionary dynamics
• On the wild side: microbial communities from the lab to the wild       

What past participants say about the conference

“An incredibly interesting and well-organised event, not only from the scientific side but also on the technical part. As expected from other editions of the meeting, the science was amazing and very variegated. Kudos for the organisation and for the unusually high number of young speakers.“ – Irene Stefanini, University of Turin, Italy

“One of my favourite meetings with a real community feeling. I’ve started collaborations and made great friends here.” – Rike Stelkens, Population Genetics, Stockholm University, Sweden

“A great conference and academic environment – networking opportunities are limitless.” – Jose Antonio Urban Aragon, International Laboratory for Human Genome Research, National Autonomous University of Mexico (LIIGH-UNAM), Mexico

This event has been granted the following EMBO sustainability badge:

Speakers

Claudia Bank

University of Bern

Switzerland

Anne-Florence Bitbol

EPFL

Switzerland

Anne Ruxandra Carvunis

University of Pittsburgh

USA

Marco Fumasoni

Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine

Portugal

Nandita Garud

University of California, Los Angeles

USA

Simonetta Gribaldo

Institut Pasteur

France

Heather Hendrickson

University of Canterbury

New Zealand

Luis Larrondo

Pontifical Catholic University of Chile

Chile

Nancy Moran

University of Texas at Austin

USA

Dmitri Petrov

Stanford University

USA

Paul Rainey

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology

Germany

Alvaro Sanchez

CSIC / University of Salamanca

Spain

Joseph Schacherer

University of Strasbourg

France

Rike Stelkens

Stockholm University

Sweden

Julia Vorholt

ETH Zurich

Switzerland

Andreas Wagner

University of Zurich

Switzerland

Noah Whiteman

University of California, Berkeley

USA

Scientific organisers

Katharine Coyte

University of Manchester

UK

Gilles Fischer

Sorbonne University

France

Antonis Rokas

Vanderbilt University

USA

Rike Stelkens

Stockholm University

Sweden

Jordi van Gestel

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany

Conference Organiser

Inna Bösselmann

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany

Sponsors

Media partners

Advanced Biology, a Wiley journal

Biobreeding, a Sciepublish journal

BioEssays, a Wiley journal

Cancer Drug Resistance, an OAE Publishing Inc. journal

ChemBioChem, a Wiley journal

EMBO Reports, an EMBO Press journal

EXO- Beyond the Cell, a Science Exploration Press journal

Medinformatics, a Bon View Publishing journal

Open Biology, a Royal Society journal

Sponsorship opportunities

We offer a variety of event sponsoring possibilities, with the flexibility to select a set sponsorship package or combine individual sponsorship options to suit your event budget. Discounts are available for companies sponsoring multiple events at EMBL Heidelberg. View other conferences, or contact sponsorship@embl.org for further information on sponsoring possibilities.

If you are interested in becoming a media partner of this event, please visit our media partnerships webpage.

Media kit

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