Ulisse Cardini

The Fifth International Course in Microbial Ecology took place at the Institute of Marine Science of the National Research Council in Venice, Italy. Lectures, computer and lab sessions focused on the use of next generation sequencing for the study of microbial communities, under the guide of experienced international researchers. A diverse group of around 40 PhD students, post-docs and young researchers from around the world attended the course. At the beginning of the course every participant (including myself) gave a short presentation introducing their research project, and this helped to establish connections and initiate discussions among the people. Consequently, during the entire course I benefitted from the lively participants and fruitful discussions, and the warm and sunny weather acted as a catalyst for the friendly and open atmosphere.

During the course I learnt how to analyze the structure and function of environmental microbial communities using molecular tools. Techniques covered included: sample collection and processing, DNA extraction, PCR of ribosomal genes, quantification and analysis of environmental DNA, amplicon (marker gene) data generation and analysis using different tools (QIIME, Arb) and metagenomics. In particular, I think I will deeply benefit from the use of the bioinformatics tools in my future research work for analyzing complex datasets of DNA sequences.

I deeply enjoyed the course, during which I had the chance to meet and interact with several international leading scientists. Furthermore, I got to know a researcher who is working on a very interesting topic using cutting-edge bioinformatics methods. During the course we had the possibility to chat and he demonstrated interest in my work, suggesting that my work experience might be useful to his working group to expand on the work they have done so far. As a consequence, I am now considering if developing a PostDoc project proposal based on a scientific collaboration with his group.

In general, participating in the 5th ICME allowed me to strengthen my scientific network, learn about new approaches and improve my own research. Special thanks to GLOMAR who supported my participation in the course.