The World Sponge Conference, hosted every 3-4 years, brings together international scientists from all over the globe to present their latest research findings and to network with colleagues both old and new.
There will be one single session and no parallel sessions. However, speed talks will be incorporated to facilitate more oral presentations and the meeting will also include a number of workshops and discussion fora to address topics of particular interest or which are developing at speed, such as systematics, natural products and genomics. It will be an important venue for early stage researchers to communicate their work and meet with established international researchers.
The topics of this conference reflect the main areas in which sponge biology is developing at present, as well as traditional research categories. A platform is provided to bring together industry and sponge science and explore how to further develop sponge natural products.
Preliminary topics for abstract submissions are as follows:
- Ecology/Ecosystems/populations
- Systematics/Evolution
- Molecular/Cell/Organismal Biology
- Symbiosis
- Biomaterials/Biomolecules