Conference goes from Oct 1-3
The International Conference on Antimicrobial Research is one of the best scientific venues to obtain the latest ideas, data and techniques regarding antimicrobial research. Specific areas that are covered at the conference include:
Antimicrobial natural and microbial products: Antimicrobial peptides and substances from terrestrial and marine organisms. Essential oils and bioactive phytochemicals. Plant/herbal extracts. Microbial-derived toxins and bacteriocins (colicins, microcins, lantibiotics, archaeocins). Biosynthesis of antibiotics. Genetics.
Antimicrobial resistance. Mechanisms of action of antimicrobial agents: 
Genomics and Proteomics. Mechanism of action. Resistance to non-antibiotic biocides. Microbial resistance to antibiotics and biocides. Resistance genes. Prevention of resistance. 
Inhibitors of bacterial cell wall biosynthesis. Inhibition of protein biosynthesis. Inhibition of nucleic acid biosynthesis. Alteration of cell membrane function. Inhibition of cell metabolism (antimetabolites). Multi-resistant strains. 
Antimicrobial materials science and surface chemistry. Antimicrobials in consumer products:  Drug-eluting concepts. Antimicrobials in consumer products: Safety and toxicological aspects. 
Antimicrobial chemistry:  Synthesis and screening of novel chemical compounds for antimicrobial action. Natural, synthetic and semi-synthetic antibiotics. Analogs. Structural determination. In-silico/ab-initio/de-novo antimicrobials discovery. New targets for antimicrobials. Rational design of antimicrobials. Bioinformatics and comparative genomics for the identification of antimicrobial targets.  
Techniques and Methods: Susceptibility Testing. Rapid microbial and resistance detection.

I am particularly interested in cell wall research as nearly two-thirds of all effective antimicrobials agents target the cell wall.  Methanogens in the rumen have similar cell walls to bacteria, and many of the techniques in studying cell walls are similar. Cell walls genes in rumen methanogens have been extensively targeted for cloning and the respective enzymes for characterisation and inhibitor screening. This conference will also cover metabolic targets and new targets. Currently, research into rumen methanogen inhibitors is approximately 2,000,000$ PA and is thus an important area of research to AgResearch. It is imperative to stay up with the latest techniques and research, as future funding in this  area (another 4 year program plus related research) could total circa 8,000,000$ till 2019 could depend on this. In addition, my current Marsden is on methanogen cell walls (863k$). I expect to make contact with several research groups that perform structural biology and assay development in this area and inhibitor development. Importantly, several enzymes involved in methanogen cell wall synthesis are also shared with bacteria.

I will be presenting an abstract and a poster. The title for both is: Investigating transformation and degradation of scaffold compounds in the rumen to advance the development of methanogen-specific inhibitors. The authors are:  Kristy Lunn, Pat Edwards, William A. Denny, Greg Cook, Stefan Muetzel1, William B. Whitman, Mike Tavendale, Vince Carbone and Ron S. Ronimus. This is a collaboration involving the University of Otago, the Massey University Auckland University and the University of Georgia.
