Category: News

Name of the speaker: Dr. Anaísa Coelho

Affiliation: Postdoctoral Research at University of Southern California

Title: “Unraveling the extracellular electron uptake pathway of Sideroxydans lithotrophicus ES-1”

ISMET was impressed by the engagement of community members on Public Engagement Day and selected three members to be awarded for their inspiring participation:

We congratulate:

• Paniz Izadi (Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany) for the 3^rd Place (100 Euro)
• Paolo Dessi (Galway, Ireland) for the 2^nd Place (200 Euro)
• Naoko Yashida (Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan) for the 1^st Place (300 Euro)

With the success of this first participation at the Public Engagement Day, we want to turn this into a tradition. So please stay tuned for a new round of exciting engagement options next year…

The next WISMET Seminarwill be on the 9th November at 17h (CEST).

Speaker:Dr. Mehri Shabani

Affiliation: ESAIP La Salle, CERADE, Saint-Barthélemy d’Anjou, France and Angers University, Faculty of Science, Group Analysis & Processes, Angers, France

Title: The potential of the Fungal microbial fuel cells to bioremediate pollutants

Registration link: https://forms.gle/uCsHehoxJBGsH1da9

Dear ISMET members,

I am writing to you in troubled times, but spring is coming. I hope that you and your families and loved ones as well as scientific families and partners are safe and healthy.
Although the last years and months may have brought us physically more apart, I am more confident than ever that the pursuit to happiness can only be based on global understanding and cooperation based on equality. Therefore, also ISMET has to become a true global society.

Here the both Ambassadors of ISMET communicated very clearly the priority of their communities that new Chapters are needed. Establishing these required changing the bylaws that are the legally binding document setting the foundation of ISMET.

On this pathway, the Board of Directors revised and updated our bylaws that you can see also here.

With accepting the bylaws the most important changes being:

• ISMET will have five Chapters (A-Africa, AP-Asia Pacific, EU-Europe, LA-Latin America, NA-Northern America) instead of three Chapters that will send equal representatives to the Board of Directors
• Two representatives per Chapter will be sent as the members to the Board of Directors that each serves for 4 years.
• Elections will take place for all Chapters (at the same time) every 2 years, all members of ISMET will vote for one Chapter, only. Here a transition period will be in place, for which in 2022 no elections would take place.
• The President stays outside of the regional representation and will be elected from the members of the Board of Directors, to serve 2 years as a President (meaning a maximum of 6 years in the Board) meaning the Board will have 10 members + 1 President
• The ISMET committees will be re-structured, the website and newsletter committee will be merged into Public engagement and outreach Committee.
• A code of conduct is introduced.
• ISMET Fellows are introduced.

Further, the Board of Directors has decided, given that the new bylaws are approved, that until 2028 the global ISMET meeting would be every three years from now on to allow sufficient time for the meetings of the regional chapters to take place.

This is why we need you taking action now! Approve the new bylaws here (logged-in, paying subscribers only).

In case of questions or doubts, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me or any other member of the ISMET Board of Directors.

Yours,
Falk (Harnisch)
 – President of ISMET –

Join the 1^st International ISMET Public Engagement Day.

How? Submit your entry on the 20^th June 2022 to participate to the contest! The top three entries will receive a prize that will be given during the global ISMET 8 conference held in 19-23rd September 2022 in Chania, Greece.

Day: 10th December (8 am Pacific Standard Time, 5 pm Central Europe Time)

Speaker: Sara Tejedor Sanz

Affiliation: Senior Scientific Engineer Associate at the Advanced Biofuels Process Development Unit, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, USA

Title: Extracellular electron transfer in lactic acid bacteria: squeezing fermentation using electrodes as redox sink

Abstract: The strategy that microorganisms use to extract energy dictates their environmental niche and their interactions with other organisms. Recently, we identified a widespread electron transfer pathway in lactic acid bacteria that allows these microorganisms to reduce extracellular electron acceptors. These species play a major, beneficial role in food fermentation and maintenance of a healthy gut microbiome. The presence of this extracellular electron transfer pathway in lactic acid bacteria was extremely surprising because they are believed to have abandoned electron transfer chains and conserve energy almost exclusively via fermentation. Our research now shows that lactic acid bacteria induce extracellular electron transfer genes and use an anode as electron acceptor to conserve energy and accelerate fermentation under laboratory conditions. Thus, the use of extracellular electron transfer could give lactic acid bacteria a fitness advantage in outcompeting other microorganisms in an ecological context. Additionally, we have investigated whether this metabolism could provide a biotechnological application by changing the flavor and texture of fermented foods.

Registration link:https://forms.gle/fuJwBMmquDiUCt6m7

More information on WISMET seminars

After delayed, yet inspiring and very well received online/in person regional conferences in 2021, the ISMET community is looking forward to the next international meeting – in person – in Chania, Grete 2022.

Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the North American Meeting of the International Society for Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology (NA-ISMET) will be hosted by the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California on November 17-19, 2021. The meeting is supported by the United States Department of Energy, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research, and ISMET members. Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, we anticipate that registration fees will be kept to a minimum, particularly for students and other junior scientists who are ISMET members.

An informational flyer is attached. Abstracts are due July 15, 2021. Please visit the meeting website at naismet2021.usc.edu (the website will be updated with more details in the coming weeks). Please contact naismet2021@gmail.com with any questions.

The naismet2021 team

WISMET will serve as a networking and mentoring collective to support female researchers in microbial electrochemistry and electromicrobiology. For more information on the WISMET seminars, or to become part of the list, head over to the WISMET seminar community page!

The first talk will be on the 14th May 2021 at 2 pm (CEST), where Ezgi Ogun will bring a seminar titled “Utilization of bioelectrochemical mechanisms in environmental engineering applications: treatment and remediation examples.”

We are looking back to our first VIRTUAL ISMET conference, which took place October 7th-9th. Despite all current restrictions in getting together, the ISMET community enjoyed an inspiring exchange of new research outcomes and ideas during this meeting of around 300 scientists with great talks and poster presentations.

We thank our organizers Catarina Paquete, Fernanda Jimenéz-Otero and Lucinda Doyle for taking on this challenge and managing a conference with around 18 time zones.

For the next year, we nevertheless hope to continue our in-person meetings at our regional conferences.