A matter of scale: Within-host and between-host processes driving coevolution with parasites
Roscoff (Bretagne), France, October 16-20, 2023
Deadline for application: June 13, 2023
Chairperson: Andrea Linn Graham
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544 USA
Phone: + 1 609 258 6703
Email: algraham@princeton.edu
Vice-chairperson : Olivier Kaltz
Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, UMR 5554, CC065
Université de Montpellier, Place E. Bataillon
34095 Montpellier, France
Phone: +33 (0)4 67 14 40 63
Email : olivier.kaltz@umontpellier.fr
Infectious diseases present an inherently multi-scale problem for evolutionary biologists: it is crucial that we understand both within-host processes and between-host processes, including any fitness trade-offs posed by the transition between scales, to understand the coevolution of strategies of attack and defense. For example, the evolutionary fitness of vector-borne parasites is shaped by immune selection and competition within the host, but also by transmission from host to vector, selective processes within the vector, and transmission from the vector to a new host. Likewise, the evolutionary fitness of hosts is shaped by the relative costs and benefits of immune defense in light of the risk and cost of parasitism for each host, and for the other hosts with which each host must compete for food and mates. Furthermore, these interactions are impacted by spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the landscapes in which hosts and parasites complete their life cycles.
Our primary aim with this conference is to foster the interdisciplinary exchanges that are essential to investigating cross-scale dynamics and thus to understanding the coevolution of hosts and parasites. Historical barriers to communication – e.g., between theorists and empiricists, or among evolutionary biologists, epidemiologists, microbiologists, and immunologists - need to be surmounted. Our conference will nurture conversations across these divides. We invite researchers to join us, for exciting presentations and discussions on themes such as genetic and genomic signatures of host-parasite coevolution, the evolutionary dynamics of attack and defense, and the environmental contexts shaping coevolution.
Invited speakers
(provisional titles)
Sonia ALTIZER (University of Georgia, USA)
Host-parasite phenology & evolutionary response to thermal stress in a migratory insect
Becca ASQUITH (Imperial College, United Kingdom)
Understanding HLA class I disease associations and demography of immune memory
Michael BOOTS (University of California, USA)
Time-scales and transients in host parasite coevolution
Thierry BOULINIER (CNRS, Montpellier University, France)
Transgenerational transfer of immunity and transmission dynamics in the ecology of infectious diseases: long lived colonial vertebrates as model systems
Michael BROCKHURST (University of Manchester, United Kingdom)
Evolving resistance against multiple parasites
Richard CORDAUX (CNRS Poitiers, France)
Bacterial endosymbionts and the evolution of sex determination mechanisms
Sylvia CREMER (IST, Austria)
Pathogen responses to host social immunity
Laurent DESBARBIEUX (Institut Pasteur, France)
Bacteriophages and bacteria interactions within the mammalian host
Alison DUNCAN (Montpellier University, France)
Interspecific parasite interactions and virulence (evolution)
Dieter EBERT (University of Basel, Switzerland)
Do Red Queen dynamics continue forever?
Heather FERGUSON (University of Glasgow, United Kingdom)
Ecological and evolutionary responses of malaria vectors to interventions and implications for control
Tatiana GIRAUD (CNRS; University of Paris-Sud, France)
Host specialization and coevolution in anther-smut fungi
Isabel GORDO (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal)
Natural selection in bacteria colonizing the mammalian gut
Andrea GRAHAM (Princeton University, USA)
The evolution of powerful yet perilous immune systems
Oliver KALTZ (CNRS, Montpellier University, France)
Hosts and parasites on the move: (co)evolution during range expansions
Kayla KING (Oxford University, United Kingdom)
Extreme heat and experimental pathogen evolution
Katia KOELLE (Emory University, USA)
Scaling up from within- and between-host evolution to population-level antigenic drift for acute respiratory infections
Britt KOSKELLA (University of California, USA)
The role of plant-associated microbiomes in pathogen colonization and disease
Micaela MARTINEZ (Emory University, USA)
Biological clocks in evolutionary medicine and infectious disease
Manfred MILINSKI (Max Planck Plön, Germany)
MHC odor signaling, a role for microbiota?
Yannick MORET (University of Bourgogne, Dijon, France)
Host-pathogen interaction in the context of immune priming in an insect
Oliver PYBUS (Oxford University, United Kingdom)
Pathogen phylodynamics: where evolution meets ecology
Thierry RIGAUD (CNRS Dijon, France)
Cross-biogeographies of Nosema microsporidia and their European freshwater gammarid hosts. When and where did sex ratio distortion and vertical transmission emerge?
Ana RIVERO (CNRS, Montpellier, France)
Avian malaria and the evolutionary ecology of host-parasite interactions
Jens ROLFF (Free University of Berlin, Germany)
Resistance evolution against antimicrobial peptides as host defences and drugs
Olivia ROTH (Kiel, Germany)
The role of the immune system and microbes in the evolution of male pregnancy
Gabriele SORCI (CNRS, Dijon, France)
Tolerance and resistance during aging
Stineke VAN HOUTE (University of Exeter, United Kingdom)
Coevolutionary interactions between bacteria defenses & phages counterdefenses
Aleksandra WALCZAK (CNRS, La Sorbonne, France)
Response in immune repertoires
Deadline for application: June 13, 2023
Registration fee (including board and lodging)
475 € for PhD students
725 € for other participants
Application for registration
The total number of participants is limited to 115 and all participants are expected to attend for the whole duration of the conference. Selection is made on the basis of the affinity of potential participants with the topics of the conference. Scientists and PhD Students interested in the meeting should deposit online before the deadline.
- their curriculum vitae
- the proof of their student status
- the list of their main publications for the 3 last years
- the abstract of their presentation:
The abstract must respect the following template:
- First line: title
- Second line: list of authors
- Third line: author's addresses
- Fourth line: e-mail of the presenting author
Abstract should not exceed 600 words. No figures.
After the deadline, the organizers will select the participants. Except in some particular cases approved by the Chairperson, it is recommended that all selected participants present their work during the conference, either in poster form or by a brief in- session talk. The organizers choose the form in which the presentations are made. No payment will be sent with application. Information on how and when to pay will be mailed in due time to those selected.