DATES:

February 19, 2018 - Open Research Conference - Level 0 Auditorium between buildings 2 and 3                                

February 20 -21, 2018 - Participants Research Workshop - Building 2, Level 5, Room 5220

Recent years have brought a changing imperative in life sciences sparked by advances in genomic tools to study the molecular setup of organisms. In particular, the development of next-generation sequencing changed our understanding of microbial diversity associated with organisms and environments. There is now a multitude of studies supporting the notion that a host-specific microbiome provides functions related to metabolism, immunity, and environmental adaptation to their animal and plant hosts. The sum of all member organisms forms a metaorganism/holobiont that opens new routes to understanding organismal health and environmental adaptation.

The "KAUST Research Workshop: The metaorganism frontier" brings together experts in microbial ecology and metaorganism evolution to showcase the current state of knowledge, and to discuss future research directions with an emphasis on how to address issues of animal and plant health through the lens of the metaorganism.

An accompanying poster session will be held on February 19, 2018 in the KAUST Library from 5.30pm to 7.30pm where RSRC/CDA/BESE students and postdocs will showcase their research.