Day 1
Monday, September 18th, 2023
08.00 – 09.00 Registration
Session 1. Building the wall (Chair: Natividad Ruiz, Ohio State Univ, USA)
09.00 – 09.30 Irina Shlosman (Harvard Univ, USA)
Allosteric activation of cell wall synthesis during bacterial growth
09.30 – 10.00 Anke Becker (Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany)
Unipolar cell wall growth in alphaproteobacterial Hyphomicrobiales: setting the growth zone
10.00 – 10.15 Cécile Morlot (Institut de Biologie Structurale, France)
Click and Collect at high resolution to unlock the secrets of cell wall synthesis
10.15 – 10.30 Nika Pende (Univ Vienna, Austria)
Discovery and characterization of the first two components of the elongasome in archaea with a pseudo-peptidoglycan cell wall
10.30 Coffee break & Posters
11.00 – 11.30 Jeanne Salje (Cambridge Univ, UK)
Peptidoglycan in obligate intracellular bacteria
11.30 – 12.00 Simonetta Gribaldo (Institut Pasteur, France)
One or two membranes? Illuminating the evolution of the cell envelope across the Tree of Bacteria
12.30 Lunch
Afternoon break
15.00 – 16.30 Coffee & Posters
Session 2. Modifying the Wall (Chair: Elitza Tocheva, Univ British Columbia, Canada)
16.30 – 17.00 Dominique Missiakas (Univ Chicago, USA)
Peptidoglycan polymerization and cleavage: an enzyme complex to regulate the length of glycan strands in S. aureus
17.00 – 17.30 Felipe Cava (Univ Umea, Sweden)
Genome-wide peptidoglycan profiling of Vibrio cholerae
17.30 – 17.45 Juan Hermoso (Instituto de Química-Física “Rocasolano”, Spain)
Structural and functional characterization of the Pneumococcal surface protein Spr1875. An unprecedented murein-modifying enzyme
17.45 – 18.00 Quynh Mai Nguyen (Institut de Biologie Structurale, France)
Teichoic acids and peptidoglycan synthesis at the nanoscale
18.00 – 18.30 Tobias Dörr (Cornell Univ, USA)
Regulation of cell wall turnover in Gram-negative pathogens
18.30 – 19.00 Xavier De Bolle (Univ Namur, Belgium)
Structure and growth of the Brucella abortus envelope
19.00 Keynote Lecture – Simon Foster (Univ Sheffield, UK)
The Bacterial cell wall in Life and Death
Day 2
Tuesday, September 19th, 2023
Session 3. Interactions with the wall (Chair: Sérgio Filipe, Univ Nova Lisboa, Portugal)
09.00 – 09.30 Laure El Chamy (Univ Saint Joseph, Lebanon)
Modulation of innate immune defenses by Bacilli: A Drosophila melanogaster perspective
09.30 – 10.00 Ethel Bayer-Santos (Univ São Paulo, Brazil)
Enemy fire: Salmonella T6SS antibacterial effectors targeting the cell envelope
10.00 – 10.15 Richard Wheeler (Institut Pasteur, France)
Investigating the intestinal microbiota peptidoglycome and its dissemination across the gut epithelial barrier
10.15 – 10.30 Renata C Matos (Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, France)
Structure-Function analysis of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum DltE reveals D-alanylated lipoteichoic acids as direct cues supporting Drosophila juvenile growth
10.30 Coffee break & Posters
11.00 – 11.30 Qiao Yuan (Nanyang Technological Univ, Singapore)
Impact of microbiota-derived peptidoglycan on infections by Candida albicans
11.30 – 12.00 Bavesh Kana (Univ Witwatersand, South Africa)
A modified BCG with depletion of enzymes associated with peptidoglycan amidation induces enhanced protection against tuberculosis in mice
12.30 Lunch
Afternoon break
15.00 – 16.30 Coffee & Posters
Session 4. Inhibition of the wall (Chair: Ivo G Boneca, Institut Pasteur, France)
16.30- 17.00 Martin J Loessner (EHT Zurich, Switzerland)
The Great Escape: how L-form conversion and lack of wall saves bacteria from drugs and viruses
17.00 – 17.30 Luiz Pedro Carvalho (Crick Institute, UK)
Mechanistic studies of antibiotic-target engagement.
17.30 – 17.45 Kelvin Kho (Institut Pasteur, France)
AI-assisted identification of bacterial cell shape determinants for antibiotic discovery
17.45 – 18.00 Camilla Henriksen (Univ Copenhagen, Denmark)
The role of the PBPs in life and death: new clues to a still unsolved mystery
18.00 – 18.30 Jean-Emmanuel Hugonnet (Sorbonne Univ, France)
Genome wide identification of gene required for alternative peptidoglycan cross-linking in Escherichia coli revealed unexpected impacts of beta-lactams
18.30 – 19.00 David Sychantha (McMaster Univ, Canada)
New glycopeptide antibiotics that block cell wall synthesis and degradation
20.00 Cocktail and Gala Diner
Day 3
Wednesday, September 20th, 2023
Session 5. Regulating the Wall (Chair: Orietta Massidda, Univ Trento, Italy)
09.00 – 09.30 Dennis Claessen (Leiden Univ, The Netherlands)
Regulation of cell wall formation in filamentous actinobacteria under hyperosmotic stress conditions
09.30 – 10.00 Beate Henrichfreise (Univ Bonn, Germany)
Tightly controlled – the septal peptidoglycan ring in Chlamydia
10.00 – 10.15 Tyler Sisley (Harvard Univ, USA)
A Staphylococcal protein controls global phosphorylation in response to cell envelope stress
10.15 – 10.30 Andrea Dessen (Brazilian Biosciences National Laboratory, Brazil)
Architecture and genomic arrangement of the MurE-MurF bacterial cell wall biosynthesis complex
10.30 Coffee break & Posters
11.00 – 11.30 Malcolm Winkler (Univ Indiana, USA)
Regulation of peptidoglycan synthesis at the pathway and protein interaction levels in ovoid-shaped Streptococcus pneumoniae
11.30 – 12.00 Sven Halbedel (Robert Koch Institute, Germany)
Regulation of Listeria monoctyogenes peptidoglycan biosynthesis by an essential protein phosphorylation
12.30 Lunch
Afternoon break
15.00 – 16.30 Coffee & Posters
Session 6. Coordinating the Wall (with the cell cycle) (Chair: David Roper, Univ Warwick, UK)
16.30 – 17.00 Natalia Luisa Hiller (Carnagie Mellon, Univ, USA)
Much more than a Wall: The role of the Gram-Positive peptidoglycan in stress response
17.00 – 17.30 Pamela Brown (Univ Missouri, USA)
Interactome of PBP1a reveals a putative elongasome in Agrobacterium tumefaciens
17.30 – 17.45 Helena Veiga (Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Portugal)
Cell division protein FtsK coordinates bacterial chromosome segregation and daughter cell separation
17.45 – 18.00 Lok-To Sham (National Univ Singapore , Singapore)
The divisome but not the elongasome organizes capsule synthesis in Streptococcus pneumoniae
18.00 – 18.30 Seamus Holden (Univ Warwick, UK)
Elucidating the role of the bacterial cytoskeleton in cell division: FtsZ treadmilling drives cell division by promoting Z-ring condensation and septal constriction initiation
18.30 – 19.00 Allister Crow (Univ Warwick, UK)
Structural basis for peptidoglycan hydrolase activation during bacterial cell division
19.00 Closing of the meeting and selection of the next venue