We are pleased to welcome you to the IBA annual meeting 2018 taking place October 29-30 in Tromsø! We are looking forward to meeting everyone over exciting talks and discussions. 

We have three key-notes speekers that will attend our IBA meeting: Sebastian Bonhoeffer (ETH Zürich), who studies population dynamics of virus infections within infected individuals, Fredrik Almqvist (Umeå University) who targets virulence, and Linus Sandegren (Uppsala antibiotikacentrum) that studies fundamental aspects of how resistance plasmids are maintained and disseminated between pathogenic bacteria and how they serve as platforms for evolution of antibiotic resistance.  

The meeting will be held at the Scandic Ishavhotel, Tromsø​ and all IBA members are welcome to apply. The deadline for application is September the 7th. To apply, please click here. 

Please find attached the tentative program IBA høstmøte okt 29-30 for the meeting.

See you all at the meeting!

IBA student and the recipient of the IBA travel grant for research stays abroad, Erik Paulshus, has spent two months in the US working on his PhD (he is currently enrolled at NMBU, Ås). This is what he had to say about it!

My PhD project aims at identifying the major sources of antibiotic resistance in urban wastewaters. Approaching this issue, we have looked at phenotypic and resistance profiles in bacterial isolates cultivated from wastewater samples and measured the levels of antibiotics. The third approach was to look at the prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the corresponding samples. The project was initially run in parallel to a European project in which the same method for detecting ARGs was used. The European counterpart was however finished before my sampling campaign was ready, and the plan of shipping my samples alongside the European ones to MSU had to be altered. Since I had many samples to analyze, the research group at MSU offered to host me at their labs so that I could assist with the analysis to reduce the time needed as well as learn the methods.

IBA was very generous in accepting my application for a travel grant to stay the two months in Michigan to do the intended work. James Tiedje is a University Distinguished Professor and Director at MSU and has vast experience in the field of environmental microbiology. The method I would be using to analyze my samples involves a very large array of qPCR reactions that are run in parallel at the Research Technology Support Facility (RTSF). A very big thanks to Professor Syed Hashsham who leads the environmental engineering lab where the preparation of samples was performed and his colleagues for help with the lab work. Some thanks are also allotted to James Cole, director of the ribosomal database project for allowing me a desk space in his computer labs at times when my designated office area was completely uninhabited.

Several complications leading up to my stay at MSU and during my stay did make the whole experience a little bit less successful then we would have hoped, but I did learn a great deal about American bureaucracy! I was lucky enough to find a student housing options that relieved some of the strain on the IBA grant budget, and I was also able to travel a bit and see several places in Michigan, including a two-night stay in Chicago and a visit to my American second cousin Krista near Grand Rapids, whom I’ve not met in person until now.

I am very thankful for meeting so many positive and encouraging researchers in a country that has recently been given a very harsh reputation, and even though things don't always work out as planned, I am also forever grateful to IBA for granting me this opportunity.

Just before the summer holidays, Oslo node of IBA had its first social meeting of the year!
We enjoyed good company, discussions, and planned future collaborations over good food in the beautiful Oslo fjord.

We are looking forward to future meetings!

A unique intensive course on “Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance” is jointly organised by IBA and the National Doctoral Programme in Infections and Antibiotics (NDPIA) 26-30 November, 2018, at Hjortviken Konferens outside Gothenburg. The course features lectures by internationally leading scientists, opportunities for participants to present research in poster walks and ample time for networking. Scientific lectures describing antibiotic resistance from other perspectives focusing on ethics, public awareness and media are also included. The preliminary program is available here Preliminary Programme Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance NDPIA IBA

Registration deadline: 17 September 2018

For more details and information on how to apply see the course page.

IBA is a part of the high-level writing course taught by editors from selected relevant journals from the Nature Publishing Group held at at Isegran Fort, Fredrikstad, Norway Spetember 6 – 7, 2018.

For more details see our courses page.

The deadline for application has been extended to August 7th!