MARBLES in the Leiden EU City of Science 2022
This year Leiden has been awarded the ‘European City of Science 2022’. A prestigious title which also grants the right to host the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) from 13-16 July 2022, the tenth edition of the biggest biennial multidisciplinary science convention in Europe! Leiden will offer a year-round programme full of activities, lectures, workshops, excursions, exhibitions and events for anyone with an inquisitive mind. MARBLES is planning to have an exhibition stand at the Boerhaave Museum for the ‘Micro Day’ on 24 October 2022. The stand will provide information on the microbiomes of marine organisms, with a focus on Streptomyces, the model bacteria being studied in the MARBLES project. The stand will be interactive with microscopes and petri dishes of Streptomyces and its antibiotic inhibition halos demonstrating how Streptomyces kills other bacteria that can harm human, crop and fish health. There will also be short quizzes and a fun workshop for children to investigate the difference between clean and dirty hands!
Also happening in Leiden in October 2022, is the 11th International Sponge Symposium. The local organising committee include MARBLES partners Nicole de Voogd and Niels van der Windt from Naturalis Biodiversity Center (NATURALIS), Lina Bayona Maldonado from Universiteit Leiden (ULEI) and Detmer Sipkema and Pavlo Hrab both from Wageningen University & Research (WU). The conference will be hosted by NATURALIS and will bring together international scientists from around the world for lots of sponge-related discussions! This year the programme will include a suite of keynote speakers, presentations, speedtalks, poster sessions and a workshop on taxonomy.