Open AccessEnvironmental Shortcourse Final report [Joint US-EC Short Course on Environmental Biotechnology: Microbial Catalysts for the Environment]
Author(s) -
Gerben J. Zylstra,
Jan Roelof van der Meer
Publication year - 2013
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/1067374
Subject(s) - environmental remediation , bioremediation , environmental biotechnology , microbiology and biotechnology , metagenomics , environmental chemistry , biochemical engineering , engineering , environmental science , engineering ethics , microbial ecology , biology , chemistry , ecology , contamination , gene , genetics , bacteria
The Joint US-EC Short Course on Environmental Biotechnology is designed for several purposes. One of the central tenets is to bring together young scientists (at the late Ph.D. or early postdoctoral stages of their careers) in a forum that will set the groundwork for future overseas collaborative interactions. The course is also designed to give the scientists hands-on experience in modern, up-to-date biotechnological methods for the analysis of microbes and their activities pertinent to the remediation of pollutants in the environment. The 2011 course covered multiple theoretical and practical topics in environmental biotechnology. The practical part was centered around a full concise experiment to demonstrate the possibility for targeted remediation of contaminated soil. Experiments included chemical, microbiological, and molecular analyses of sediments and/or waters, contaminant bioavailability assessment, seeded bioremediation, gene probing, PCR amplification, microbial community analysis based on 16S rRNA gene diversity, and microarray analyses. Each of these topics is explained in detail. The practical part of the course was complemented with two lectures per day, given by distinguished scientists from the US and from Europe, covering a research area related to what the students are doing in the course