September 22-25, 2026, Trakošćan, Croatia

Programme

Tuesday, 22 September 2026
12:00 – 14:00 Arrival & Registration
14:30 – 15:00 Opening Ceremony
15:00 – 16:00 KL1  Giuseppe Spano – Microbial innovation for a sustainable food future: Lactiplantibacillus plantarum as model 

Chair: Jasna Novak 
16:00 – 16:30 Coffee break
16:30 – 18:30 Session 1 – Microbes for Sustainable Food Systems

Chair: Ines Sviličić Petrić
16:30  – 17:00  IL1 Denis Kutnjak – Landscape virology: spatiotemporal dynamics of river and riparian plant viromes 
17:00  – 17:30  IL2 Dubravko Pavoković – First record and multilocus sequence typing of endosymbiontic bacteria Wolbachia pipientis in ants and spiders in Croatia  
17:30  – 17:45  OP1 Anđela Bačinić – Assessment of the potential of bacterial isolates for the bioremediation of TBT-contaminated sediments 
17:45  – 18:00  OP2 Dunja Jurina – Microbial diversity of river periphyton in the Pannonian ecoregion of Croatia 
18:00  – 18:15  OP3 Anastazija Huđ – A preliminary study of microbial dynamics in a common carp nursery pond 
18:15  – 18:30  OP4 Marko Marohnić – Evaluation of viral enrichment strategies for compost Virome Analysis 
18:30 – 19:30 Poster Session I
20:00 Welcome Reception

Wednesday, 23 September 2026
08:30 – 10:30 Session 2 – Microbes for Human, Animal and Plant Health

Chair: Ana Bielen
08:30  –  9:00  IL3 Martin Hoenigl – Impact of climate change on fungal diseases: from the pathogen to the host 
09:00  –  09:30  IL4 Martina Šeruga Musić – Transcriptomic profiling of Arabidopsis thaliana transgenic lines overexpressing ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’ SAP-like effectors 
09:30  –  09:45  OP5 Ljudevit Luka Boštjančić – Viromes of invasive crayfish (order Decapoda): insights from calico crayfish and signal crayfish across organs 
09:45  –  10:00  OP6 Marin Ježić – Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 effect on its host physiology in various fungal isolates  
10:00  –  10:15  OP7 Marta Kozarić – Qualitative proteomic analysis and antifungal susceptibility of clinical and environmental Fusarium musae isolates 
10:15  –  10:30  OP8 Ela Šarić – Phenotypic and transcriptomic responses of Aphanomyces astaci to thermal stress 
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 – 12:30 Meet the Editor Workshop with Iva Grabarić Andonovski
12:30 – 14:00 Lunch break
14:00 – 16:00 CDM1 AI-driven Microbiology with Tomaž Curk
16:00  – 16:30  Coffee break
16:30 – 17:30 Poster Session II
17:30 – 19:00 Orange Data Mining Workshop (limited to 20 participants with laptops) with Tomaž Curk
20:00 Social programme

Thursday, 24 September 2026
08:30 – 10:30 Session 3 – Microbes and Biotechnology for Food Science and the Bioeconomy 

Chair: Andreja Leboš Pavunc 
08:30  – 9:00  IL5 Egon Bech Hansen – Cell envelope proteinases (CEP) of lactic acid bacteria 
09:00 – 09:30  IL6 Doris Marco – The complex interaction between gut microbiota and mycotoxins 
09:30 – 09:45  OP9 Magdalena Hižak – From indigenous bacteria to synthetic microbial consortia: a climate-smart strategy for traditional crop production 
09:45 – 10:00  OP10 Jana Fránová – Viral and phytoplasma diseases of blueberries in the Czech Republic: from symptoms and vector occurrence to molecular detection and mapping of their spread 
10:00 – 10:15  OP11 Dijana Škorić – An apple a day, and various plant pathogenic agents along the way 
10:15 – 10:30  OP12 Jasenka Petrić – Microbiological safety of plant based dairy and meat substitutes at end of shelf life in Croatia 
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 – 12:00 KL2 Ivan Mijaković – Bacterial cell factories for biosustainability applications: from carbon capture to future foods
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch break
13:00 – 15:00 CDM2 Microbiology Meets Industrywith NUQLEUS, Dragomira Majhen & Martin Kavšček
15:00 – 19:00 Excursion
20:00 Gala Dinner

Friday, 25 September 2026
08:30 – 10:30 Session 4 – Fundamental Microbiology for Future Applications 

Chair: Davor Zahradka 
08:30  – 9:00  IL7 Igor Stuparević – Dynamic regulation shaping the Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell wall architecture and protein immobilization 
09:00  – 09:30  IL8 Ivana Ivančić-Baće – Helicase activity and lysogeny influences the distribution of CRISPR-Cas spacer origins in E. coli  
09:30  – 09:45  OP13 Filip Božić – Structural genome instability in Deinococcus radiodurans after extreme gamma-irradiation 
09:45  – 10:00  OP14 Jelena Repar – Alternative end-joining mechanism contributes to the repair of DNA double-strand breaks in Deinococcus radiodurans 
10:00  – 10:15  OP15 Dora Tomašković – Artificial intelligence-enhanced FT-IR spectroscopy for rapid serovar identification of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica isolates from Croatia 
10:15  – 10:30  OP16 Frederic Chaux – Implementing a Synthetic Biology approach to unveil gene function across Marine Microalgae (SynBioMM): case-study of the vitamin B5 biosynthesis in coccolithophores  
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 – 12:00 Best of Young Scientists – Mini Talks
12:00 – 13:30 Lunch break
13:30 – 15:30 CDM3 Microbiology Going Public (at Trakošćan) with Petra Buljević Zdjelarević & Marko Košiček
15:30 – 16:00 Closing Ceremony – Awards for best poster and best short oral presentation
16:30 – 18:00 Microbes at Trakošćan – Public Microbiology Event for Children
Interactive hands-on stations introducing children to different microbiology topics

Legend:
KL = Keynote Lecture | IL = Invited Lecture | OP = Selected Oral Presentation | CDM = Cross-disciplinary Module

THREE LAYERS OF THE PROGRAMME
SCIENTIFIC SESSIONS
From research to real-world solutions
CROSS-DISCIPLINARY MODULES
Uniting perspectives across microbiology
INTERACTIVE FORMATS
Hands-on experiences for early-career scientists

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