On 20 February 2019, members of the Quadram Institute team played key roles in the Biennial Microbes in Norwich meeting, which took place at the John Innes Conference Centre.

Emma Ainsworth (third from left) with her Microbiology Society poster prize certificate.

Every two years the Microbes in Norwich group organises a large event to showcase the wide variety of microbiological research that takes place on the Norwich Research Park (NRP). The aim of the event is to improve links between researchers and research bodies to encourage high quality research and open communication between scientists.

Quadram Institute’s Dr Lindsay Hall was a member of the organising committee. She said of the event, “Microbes in Norwich 2019 was an excellent opportunity to find out about the breadth and depth of research in microbiology being undertaken across the Norwich Research Park at the Quadram Institute, the University of East Anglia, the John Innes Centre, The Sainsbury Laboratory, the Earlham Institute and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. Our only problem was narrowing down our choices for speakers.”

Contributing to the 2019 programme were speakers from across all NRP partners, including QIB speakers Dr Alison Mather, Dr Fred Warren, Dr Gemma Langridge and Dr Naiara Beraza. Gemma, who is one of Quadram Institute’s Career Track Research Leaders (CTRL) said, “The Microbes in Norwich event has been a great opportunity for me to talk about my research, which aims to understand bacterial variation, then spend time discussing it with those with a shared interest locally.”

Fred, another of Quadram Institute’s CTRLs agreed, “This meeting was a great opportunity to showcase my research. The depth of expertise in microbiome research at the Norwich Research Park allows me to conduct a research programme investigating the role of dietary carbohydrate spanning from plant biotechnology with John Innes to gut microbiology at the Quadram Institute, working with leading experts in the gut microbiome.”

Throughout the event around 50 of Norwich’s early career microbiology researchers presented their research in a poster event and it was great to have a large number of Quadram Institute posters among them. Quadram Institute’s Emma Ainsworth and Emma Holden were among the poster prize winners.

Professor Colin Murrell, Professor in Environmental Microbiology at the University of East Anglia and chair of the organising committee said, “This year’s Microbes in Norwich meeting has been a huge success. I am very proud to be working in such a strong microbiology network, all based in Norwich, and I was delighted to be able to share our outstanding research with the event’s Plenary Speaker, Professor Nicole Dubilier, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Germany.”

With thanks to the sponsors, the poster prizes were awarded to:

Emma Holden with her ISME poster prize certificate.

Microbiology Society
Alba Pacheco-Moreno, John Innes Centre
Emma Ainsworth, Quadram Institute Bioscience
Leanne Sims, University of East Anglia

Nature Microbiology
Felix Ramos-Leon, John Innes Centre
Alicia Russell, John Innes Centre

International Society for Microbial Ecology
Emma Holden, Quadram Institute Bioscience
Lisa Gibson, University of East Anglia