As the cost of sequencing continues to fall and the use of omics technologies such as RNA-sequencing is rapidly progressing, massive amount of data continues to be generated for lab-strains as well as many real food isolates. This ‘data deluge’ provides new opportunities to design novel strategies for antimicrobial intervention in the food chain. In particular, in-silico approaches could potentially be applied to identify new target sites to prevent either spore germination or growth of vegetative pathogens and promote die-off.

However, these means are seldom exploited in the food industry because appropriate methods to model them have yet to be established. We propose a symposium that illustrates both the promises and the challenges of using Systems Biology approaches for food safety in practical cases.

The symposium will begin with a presentation on how genome sequences can be converted into genome-scale metabolic or regulatory models for foodborne pathogens such as Campylobacter and Salmonella. Then we will explore how the metabolic networks can be analysed to unravel potential antimicrobial targets or select optimized combinations of antimicrobials which efficiently inhibit organisms and prevent resistance. Finally, we will illustrate how proteomics can advance the understanding of spore germination and maturation and hence the possibility of finding targets for intervention.

This symposium will be of interest to students and professionals of all knowledge levels and expertise in the food industry, academia, as well as regulatory agencies who have an interest in exploiting molecular biology data.

Presentations