The Association for General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM) is an association with the aim of being an innovative and scientifically internationally recognized platform for all microbiology fields and promoting the scientific exchange and cooperation of its members. In this context, and on the basis of current research activities, their next meeting will take place from 15 to 18 April 2018 at the CongressPark Wolfsburg. Participants attending the conference come mainly from the working field in research and development at universities, large research institutes and federal institutes, in the pharmaceutical and chemical industry, in food microbiology, in biotechnology companies, in young start-­‐up companies as well as in teaching and research environmental and consumer protection. The spectrum of presentations and discussions on the meeting includes many topics of the microbiological sciences. Thematic priorities are set by the researchers and staff of the scientific committees, depending on the dependence of the research activities of the institutes to which they belong. Topics from “Biodegradation”, “Fungal Biology”, “Membranes and Transport” as well as “Synthetic Microbiology” will be covered as well as many more. The program provides an overview of microbiology as well as an “update” of current developments in the field. Overall, we hope that the implementation of the meeting will lead to a better link between the various specialist areas and new impetus for future research projects. Through the invitation of international speakers, which provide a versatile insight into their current research work, the topics can also be viewed at the national as well as at the international level in order to specifically promote the individual research fields and to create the possibility to publish new findings and to promote international scientific exchange in Microbiology.

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