The Labs of The Pub Club : He, Day, Howe, Friesen & Bonito will be hosting the members of  The Weigel Lab for an open discussion of  our areas of science, with a featured presentation by Detlef  himself!  This “Mini-Conference” will be held via Skype over our new Aquos Board & Web conference set-up.  Overviews of our respective research programs/projects will be given by members of The Plub Club and The Weigel Lab (see below).  However, discussion is not only welcome but the intent and will be open to all members of both Weigel World and those in attendance at The Pub Club / MSU 4th floor MPS.

The Line Up

Presenting From Weigel World:

Emanuele – Microbial self-organization in the leaf ecosystem – Visualizing microbes on “wild” leaves

Derek – Microbe micro-communities on Arabidopsis leaves and the impact of host genotype

Talia – Pseudomonas diversity and infection dynamics in natural Arabidopsis host populations

Presenting From The Pub Club:

Joe –  He lab research overview – A multi-faceted approach to understanding plant pathogenesis

Siobhan – Characterizing metabolic interactions among Arabidopsis microbial community members

Amy  – Day lab research overview & DNA-nanosensor based diagnostics of plant pathogens

Ian – Howe lab research overview – Molecular basis of plant defense against insects

Keynote presentation by Detlef Weigel

Some of the topics Detlef will cover in his talk are:

• The story of how Weigel became a world.  What are the key things that have defined him as a scientist, and how does this affect his current philosophy and approach to research, mentoring and outreach?
• How does he manage his time? What tools (if any) do he use to keep him on track and productive?
• What advice does Detlef have for us as graduate students and post docs pursuing careers in science?

While we will have people giving project overviews, the goal of this meeting is to initiate a scientific conversation to which we all can contribute and from which we all can benefit.  Some thoughts from Detlef on conversation topics are:

• How  many independent colonizations does a single leaf experience?
• How much do microbes travel within a plant?
• What is the spatial arrangement of microbial colonies in a leaf?
• How clonal are infections – at the level of a leaf, plant, population?

What questions do you have that you would like to discuss?  Be sure to take note of them this week!

For questions about the mini-conference reach out to the coordinators:

The Pub Club: Bethany Huot alphanode@thepubclubhub.org

Weigel World: Gautam Shirsekar