FEMS Summer School for Postdocs 2023
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This summer school gave us a great opportunity to meet in person some excellent professors & mentors, with amazing and inspirational talks, and great postdoc scientists for future collaborations.”
Source: Summer School for Postdocs 2022 evaluation
Quick facts
- When? 4 – 11 September 2023
- Where? Accommodation and all facilities are in the Mediterranean Institute for Life Sciences (MedILS) in Split, Croatia
- Who? Selected applicants. Applicants must be currently working in a postdoctoral position, or have completed a postdoc within 5 years (excluding special leave) of the end of the FEMS Summer School. Abstract submission opening tba.
- What? This Summer School will focus on Cutting-edge microbial technologies for a sustainable industrial future.
Introduction
The FEMS Summer School for PostDocs 2023 will involve a combination of formal lectures, brainstorming sessions, problem-solving exercises and will finish with a small-group project design competition.
The Summer School aims to foster a mindset of translating cutting-edge technologies from the research bench to scalable industrial applications. It will focus on state-of-the-art in vitro and in vivo technologies that can be used to engineer microbes for a range of novel industrial, environmental, and healthcare applications. In many cases these applications are designed to replace existing energy intensive processes that currently relay on non-sustainable substrate and energy sources.
The Summer School will appeal to post-doctoral microbiologists who see their future careers in academia, collaborating with industry on technology and product development, or in industry as researchers, industrial microbiologists, or project managers.
Learn about the FEMS Summer School for Postdocs from the class of 2021 (event postponed to April 2022):
Preliminary Programme
No. | Title of lecture | Lecturer | Organization |
1 | FEMS Summer Schools: Introduction, History and Purpose | Prof. Vaso Taleski | Goce Delcev University of Štip (MK) |
2 | Bioprospecting Genomes and Metagenomes | Prof. Anil Wipat | Newcastle University, (UK) |
3 | Genome synthesis | Prof. Kenji Tsuge (online) | Kobe University, (JP) |
4 | Transcriptome analysis and rtPCR | TBC | |
5 | Genome engineering and minimalization | Prof. Jörg Stulke | Göttingen University (DE) |
6 | In vivo expression systems | Prof. Ken-ichi Yoshida | Kobe University, (JP) |
7 | Enzyme structure & artificial enzymes | TBC | |
8 | Whole cell modelling | Prof. Anil Wipat | Newcastle University, (UK) |
9 | European Commission funding | Mr Patrick Vittet-Philippe | |
10 | Principles of genome editing tools and their application to microbial engineering | Prof. Keiji Nishida | Kobe University, (JP) |
11 | Optimising industrial enzyme production | Prof. Colin Harwood | Newcastle University, (UK) |
12 | Extracting value from microbial pathways: From metabolic fluxes to metabolically engineered cell factories | Prof. Christoph Wittmann | Saarland University (DE) |
13 | Journal publishing guide | TBC | |
14 | Optimising metabolite production | Prof. Ken-ichi Yoshida | Kobe University, (JP) |
15 | Microbial fermentation for the production of metabolites | Prof. Michael Sauer
|
BOKU (AU) |
16 | DNA sequencing technologies and commercial applications | Dr Nick Allenby (online) | Sunderland University (UK) |
17 | Industrial product development and project management | Dr Tjeerd Van Rij (online)
|
DSM (NL) |
18 | Regulatory issues IP and patenting | Dr Jose Arnau (online) | 21stBio (DK) |
Summer School Co-Directors

Newcastle University
United Kingdom
Colin Harwood is Professor of Molecular Microbiology at Newcastle University (UK). He has been involved in 12 EU-funded research and training programmes, in two cases as project coordinator. He has collaborated with many of the world’s largest producers of industrial enzymes, as well and many Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and start-up companies. He also spent a sabbatical year at KabiGen AB (SE), one of the world’s first biotechnology companies. His expertise is primarily on the molecular biology of bacteria in the genus Bacillus, which are extensively employed in the production of industrial enzymes and metabolites. He provides consultancy services to companies on strain development and on regulatory issues associated with antibiotic resistance and resistance transfer. He has published more than 150 research and review articles and has edited a number of journals and method books.

Kobe University
Japan
Ken-ichi Yoshida is Professor of Applied Microbiology at Kobe University (Japan). He has specialized in bacterial structural and functional genomics since the very beginning of his career, including as a postdoc at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA). He has published more than 130 research papers and reviews. In particular, he is recognized as an international pioneer in the elucidation of bacterial inositol metabolism and its applications. He was awarded the prize for the “Encouragement of Young Scientists” and on two occasions the “Excellent papers” prize from the Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology and Agrochemistry. He received the “Fermentation and metabolism research award” from Japan Bioindustry Association and the prize from NAGASE Science Technology Foundation. He has previously served as a Program Officer in the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. He is currently the honorary FEMS Ambassador to Japan.

Founder of MedILS
Honorary Director
Miroslav Radman is a FEMS-Lwoff Award winner (2011) for his research of DNA repair mechanism in Deinococcus radiodurans and Co-founder of MedILS. He is an Honorary Director of the FEMS Summer School for Postdocs
A Message from the FEMS Director of Events & Internationalization, Prof. d-r Vaso Taleski
Dear potential students of the FEMS Summer School for Postdocs 2022!
With great pleasure I would like to inform you that the fourth FEMS summer school for postdocs will take place at MedILS, Split, Croatia, from 4-11th September 2023.
It is my honor to announce that we have great directors and distinguished speakers-mentors, as well as an excellent and very attractive 8-day program of cutting-edge science.
This event is a great opportunity to improve your personal knowledge and skills, open new horizons, start new collaborations and scientific projects. It could have a significant impact on the direction of your future scientific career. The extremely positive feedback from postdocs, directors, mentors and speakers who attended the previous three summer schools confirms the excellence of both the venue and the teaching program; with special mention of the success of the group exercises.
Ambitious postdocs should not miss this unique event and lifetime opportunity.
Looking forward to your participation.
Prof. d-r Vaso Taleski
FEMS Director of Events & Internationalization
Costs
Successful applicants are expected to pay the costs of their travel and travel insurance. The bench fee for each successful applicant is € 400, payable to MedILS within 15 days of receiving an invoice after selection. The fee covers accommodation (in a shared room), catering, and attendance for the duration of the Summer School.
Cancellation Policy
If you need to cancel your attendance after paying your fee, you will be reimbursed:
- before 15 July 2023, 50%
- before 31 July 2023, 30%
- after 31 July 2023, 0%
Timeline
- OPEN applications system 27 February 2023
- Deadline for applications 15 May 2023
- Notification of outcome of applications: 12 June 2023
- OPEN Online registration for successful applicants: TBA
- Online registration for successful applicants close: 15 July 2023
- Notification of applicants on the waiting list: 15 July 2023
- Registration fee payment deadline: 31 July 2023
- Summer School Arrivals and Opening: 4 September 2023
- Summer School Closing: 11 September 2023
- Summer School Departures: 12 September 2023
Organization
Summer School Co-Directors:
- Colin Harwood, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
- Ken-ichi Yoshida, Kobe University, Japan
- Miroslav Radman, Founder of MedILS, Honorary Director
Persons involved in the organization FEMS:
- Vaso Taleski, FEMS Director of events & internationalization
- Maria Martinut, FEMS Events & Logistics Assitant
- Joseph Shuttleworth, FEMS Science Communications Project Manager
Persons involved in the organization from MedILS:
- Jelena Ružić, Acting director
- Irena Rajić, Secretary
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FEMS Microbes is excited to present its latest thematic issue, focusing on bacterial-viral co-infections. Host and microbial factors are critically important for influencing the severity and outcome of infection. Interactions between microbes is an understudied yet important aspect to this process.