Meet FEMS Meeting Attendance Grantee Sarah Trenz
24-11-22
Meeting Attendance Grants enable early career researchers to attend microbiology meetings worldwide to network, collaborate and keep abreast of new developments in their field.
Sarah Trenz: University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Title of Event: Protein secretion at the host-pathogen interface
Venue: Riddle Hall, Belfast, UK
Dates: 3-4 November 2022
FEMS Member Society Membership: Association for General and Applied Microbiology
My scientific education started with the Bachelor of Biology at the Friedrich-Alexander-Univerity in Erlangen, where I already focused mainly on cell biological and microbiological research. Further, I completed my Master of Science of Cell Biology and Immunology at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen, where I could deepen my knowledge regarding the interplay of host and pathogens and focus on infection mechanisms. At the moment I am in my first year of my PhD at the Interfaculty Institute for Microbiology and Infection Medicine Tübingen (IMIT) in the research group “Cellular and Molecular Microbiology” (Prof. Dr. Samuel Wagner) as part of the CMFI Cluster of Excellence in Tübingen. My current research topic is about “Revealing membrane insertion mechanisms of Legionella’s integral membrane effector proteins in host cells”.
The focus of this meeting, taking place on the 3–4 November 2022 in Belfast, UK, was on the structure and function of type II, III, IV, VI and VII secretion systems as well as their protein cargos from diverse bacteria in Gram-negative and Gram-positive pathogens. To functionally characterize the assembly of the many different types of secretion machineries and their respective secretion of substrates, new methods and recent major technical advances in super-resolution light and electron microscopy as well as new ‘omic’-technologies were presented.
I wanted to attend the event to learn more about the latest developments in the field of infection and to understand the molecular basis of host-pathogen interactions to new levels. I wanted the opportunity for some critical exchange, networking and new collaborations across the microbiology research community.
I hope FEMS can continue to support ECRs financially to give them the opportunity to join meetings that benefit their scientific development.’’