Day 1
Monday, September 15th, 2025
08.00 – 09.00 Registration
Session 1. Building the wall (Chair: Cécile Morlot, IBS, Grenoble, France)
09.00 – 09.30 Simonetta Gribalbo (Institut Pasteur, France)
A cell wall hydrolase specific to methanogens reveals the structure of archaeal peptidoglycan
09.30 – 10.00 Morten Kjos (Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway)
Control of lipoteichoic acid biosynthesis and membrane homeostasis in Staphylococcus aureus
10.00 – 10.15 Short Talk 1: Liselot Dewachter (University of Louvain, Belgium)
Need for speed? How cell wall synthesis rate influences cell shape in S. pneumoniae
10.15 – 10.30 Short Talk 2: Morgan Gilman (Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA)
A multifaceted interaction between MreC and MreD regulates Rod complex activity
10.30 Coffee break & Posters
11.00 – 11.30 Manjula Reddy (Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India)
A conserved editing mechanism for the fidelity of bacterial cell wall biosynthesis
11.30 – 12.00 Joanna Timmins (Institut de Biologie Structurale, Grenoble, France)
Dissecting the unusual division mechanism of Deinococcus radiodurans
12.30 Lunch
Afternoon break
15.00 – 16.30 Coffee & Posters
Session 2. Modifying the Wall (Chair: David Roper, Univ Warwick, UK)
16.30 – 17.00 Felipe Cava (Umea University, Sweden)
An anionic glycopolymer protects the Agrobacterium tumefaciens periplasm from toxic metal ions
17.00 – 17.30 Jie Xiao (Johns Hopkins School of Medecine, Baltimore, USA)
A three-track model for coordinated septal peptidoglycan synthesis and degradation in Escherichia coli
17.30 – 17.45 Short Talk 3: Justin Zik (University of California Berkeley, USA)
RB-TnSeq for genetic interactions of the capsular polysaccharide biosynthetic pathway reveals an intimate link with teichoic acid synthesis in Streptococcus pneumoniae
17.45 – 18.00 Short Talk 4: Michaël Deghelt (de Duve Institute, Brussels, Belgium)
Attachment of the outer membrane to peptidoglycan enables vital periplasmic pressure build-up
18.00 – 18.30 Tobias Dörr (Cornell University, Ithaca, USA)
Molecular mechanisms of peptidoglycan endopeptidase regulation
18.30 – 19.00 Christophe Grangeasse (CNRS/University of Lyon, France)
Characterization of a GpsB-associated regulator of PBP1a reveals the organization of the cell wall remodeling complex of Streptococcus pneumoniae
19.00 Keynote Lecture – Lori Burrows (University of McMaster, Canada)
Old drugs, new tricks – antifolates inhibit peptidoglycan recycling in Pseudomonas aeruginosa
20.00 Dinner
Day 2
Tuesday, September 16th, 2025
Session 3. Interacting with the wall (Chair: Bavesh Kana, Univ Witwatersand, South Africa)
09.00 – 09.30 Jan-Willem Veening (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)
A bacterial cell wall repair and modification system to resist host antibacterial factors
09.30 – 10.00 Julien Royet (Institut de Biologie du Développement de Marseille, France)
Interactions between PGN and the drosophila nervous system
10.00 – 10.15 Short Talk 5: Lanxin Li (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
Peptidoglycan fragments uptake and recognition mechanism in Candida albicans
10.15 – 10.30 Short Talk 6: Wei Wang (Fundan University, China)
Developing Peptidoglycan-targeting metabolic labeling probes for in vivo investigation of gut Microbiota
10.30 Coffee break & Posters
11.00 – 11.30 Ben Berks (Oxford University, UK)
A shared mechanism for Bacteroidota protein transport and gliding motility
11.30 – 12.00 Vinay K Nandicoori (Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India)
Secretory pathways in Mycobacteria- their role in cellular homeostasis
12.00 – 12.15 Sérgio Filipe (Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Oeiras, Portugal)
LabCollector presentation
12.15 Group Photo
12.30 Lunch
Afternoon break
15.00 – 16.30 Coffee & Posters
Session 4. Inhibiting the wall (Chair: Tanja Schneider, Univ Bonn, Germany)
16.30- 17.00 Nathaniel Martin (University of Leiden, The Netherlands)
Introducing EVG7: a potent next-generation glycopeptide with demonstrated superiority to vancomycin and best-in-class potential
17.00 – 17.30 Markus Weingarth (University of Utrecht, The Netherlands)
Cracking Nature’s Recipes to Design Lipid-Targeting Antibiotics
17.30 – 17.45 Short Talk 7: Anna Müller (University of Bonn, Germany)
“Novel points of attack” – Exploiting capsule biosynthesis in Streptococcus pneumoniae for antibacterial treatment
17.45 – 18.00 Short Talk 8: Alicja Razew (Institut de Biologie Structural, Grenoble, France)
Monitoring drug–protein interactions and quantifying outer membrane permeability in gram-negative bacteria using solution NMR
18.00 – 18.30 Shahriar Mobashery (University of Notre Dame, USA)
Disruption of Cell-Wall Homeostasis in Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
18.30 – 19.00 Simon Foster (University of Sheffield, UK)
Staphylococcus aureus Cell Division: In Sickness and In Health
20.00 Cocktail and Gala Diner
Day 3
Wednesday, September 17th, 2025
Session 5. Regulating the Wall (Chair: Ivo G Boneca, Institut Pasteur, France)
09.00 – 09.30 Beiyan Nan (Taxes A&M, College Station, USA)
An endopeptidase mediates the mutual regulation between the Rod system and an aPBP
09.30 – 10.00 Kumaran Ramamurthi (NIH, Bethesda, USA)
The coat assembly checkpoint in Bacillus subtilis
10.00 – 10.15 Short Talk 9: Melissa Webby (University of Warwick, UK)
Visualising envelope coordination through structural trapping of trans-envelope assemblies
10.15 – 10.30 Short Talk 10: Gregory Harrison (Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, USA)
Interrogating Clostridioides difficile’s unique division pathway identifies AmiZ as a key cell separation amidase
10.30 Coffee break & Posters
11.00 – 11.30 Juan Hermoso (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain)
Structural and Mechanistic Insights into SleC, a Key Germination Enzyme in Clostridioides difficile, and Discovery of a Germination Inhibitor
11.30 – 12.00 Ian Henderson (University of Queensland, Australia)
A tale of two PGs: how phosphatidylglycerol influences peptidoglycan synthesis
12.00 Departure of the buses to Catania and Riviera
12.30 Lunch
Afternoon break
15.00 – 16.30 Coffee & Posters
Session 6. Coordinating the Wall (with the cell cycle) (Chair: Petra Levin, Washington Univ , USA)
16.30 – 17.00 Thomas Bartlett (Wadsworth Center, USA)
Division-Site Selection and Envelope Biogenesis in Staphylococcus aureus
17.00 – 17.30 Francisco Garcia del Portillo (CSIC, Madrid, Spain)
The acquisition of alternative bPBPs by Salmonella extends to multiple variants of Braun’s lipoprotein
17.30 – 17.45 Short Talk 11: Nishan Nathoo (University of Shefield, UK)
Streptococcus pneumoniae peptidoglycan maturation during division visualised with AFM and other microscopies
17.45 – 18.00 Short Talk 12: Nils Meiresonne (Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Oeiras, Portugal)
Where and when do peptidoglycan synthesis proteins interact during the cell cycle?
18.00 – 18.30 Paula Navarro (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)
The cellular function of the class A Penicillin Binding Protein 1b (PBP1b)
18.30 – 19.00 Hesper Rego (Yale University, New Haven, USA)
Division and resistance: discovery of a protein that connects the cell cycle and intrinsic drug resistance in M. tuberculosis
19.00 Mariana G Pinho (Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Oeiras, Portugal)
In memorium of Professor Alexander Tomazs
19:15 Closing of the meeting and selection of the next venue
20.00 Dinner