UI to host 25th annual Midwest Microbial Pathogenesis Conference Sept 28 – 30

2018 marks the 25th anniversary of the annual Midwest Microbial Pathogenesis Conference (MMPC), with the conference returning to its birthplace at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

“Since it was first convened at the UI in 1994, the MMPC has been held every year at different academic institutions from across the Midwest,” says Tim Yahr, PhD, UI professor of microbiology and immunology, and co-chair of the 2018 MMPC planning committee. “The conference provides an important forum for students, postdoctoral fellows, junior faculty, and established investigators from the Midwest to network, present, and discuss cutting-edge research in the field of microbial pathogenesis.”

From Sept. 28 to 30, the UI Department of Microbiology and Immunology will host more than 270 attendees from 47 universities across the country. The scientists will discuss new findings and emerging trends across a range of research areas including, intracellular pathogens, bacterial physiology, interactions, and signaling, immune responses to pathogens, and the microbiome.

Michael Welsh, MD, the Roy J. Carver Biomedical Research Chair in Internal Medicine and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, and director of the Pappajohn Biomedical Institute at the UI, will present the keynote address, “Host Defense Defects against Bacterial Infection in the Cystic Fibrosis Lung,” on Sept 29.