Book of Abstracts of MICROBIOTEC09

Abstract

This book contains the abstracts presented at the 3rd joint meeting of the Portuguese Society of Microbiology and The Portuguese Society of Biotechnology - MicroBiotec09, held in Vilamoura, Portugal, over 3 days, from the 28th to the 30th of November, 2009. MicroBiotec09 comes in the sequence of previous conferences organized by each society, since 1982, date of the I Encontro Nacional de Biotecnologia (Lisbon), till 2005, date of the first joint meeting - MICRO'05 + BIOTEC'05 (Póvoa de Varzim). Following this joint meeting, another - MICRO 07 + BIOTEC 07 + XXIII JPG took place in Lisbon (2007). MicroBiotec09 is a joint organization of “Sociedade Portuguesa de Biotecnologia”, “Sociedade Portuguesa de Microbiologia”, Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (Universidade do Minho – Departamento de Engenharia Biológica) and Centro de Recursos Microbiológicos (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia – Departamento de Ciências da Vida). MicroBiotec09 brings together both young and established researchers and end users to discuss recent developments in different areas of Biotechnology and Microbiology. The conference program has thus been divided in 8 major sessions: Microbial Physiology, Molecular Biology and Functional Genomics; Cell and Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials and Nanobiotechnologies; Clinical Microbiology and Epidemiology; Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology; Health and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology; Cellular Microbiology and Pathogenesis; Industrial and Food Microbiology and Biotechnology; Bioinformatics, Comparative Genomics and Evolution. A special session to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his landmark work “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection” will also take place. A total of 295 abstracts are included in the book, consisting of 6 invited lecturers, 10 oral presentations and 44 short oral presentations given in 3 parallel sessions, along with 4 slots for viewing poster presentations. All abstracts have been reviewed and we are grateful to the members of scientific and organizing committees for their evaluations. It was an intensive task since 328 submitted abstracts were received. It has been an honor for us to contribute to setting up MicroBiotec09 during an intensive period of 6 months. We wish to thank the authors who have contributed to yield a high scientific standard to the program. We are thankful to the sponsors who have contributed decisively to this event. We also extend our gratefulness to all those who, through their dedicated efforts, have assisted us in this task. On behalf of the Scientific and Organizing Committees we wish you that together with an interesting reading, the scientific program and the social moments organized will be memorable for all.