The 7th International Conference on Model Hosts will focus on the fascinating world of host-microbe interactions, disease, and immunity across a diverse range of systems.

In recent years, researchers have increasingly turned to model hosts such as plants, insects, fish, worms, and others to complement and replace studies in murine models. These models have a number of advantages as they are relatively simple, inexpensive, high-throughput, reproducible, and highly versatile. By harnessing the power of these organisms, scientists are able to mimic associations with the microbiome and a variety of human infectious diseases, and to study the resulting host responses. Because many of these hosts are genetically tractable, they can be used in conjunction with appropriate microbes to study host-microbe interactions.

What makes this conference truly remarkable is the discovery that a common, fundamental set of molecular mechanisms is employed by a number of microbes in their interactions with a wide array of hosts. Moreover, the responses of these model hosts have contributed important insights in our understanding of evolutionarily-conserved immune and homeostatic responses. Investigators employing virtually any mammalian or non-mammalian model host will discover that the 7th International Conference on Model Hosts provides an outstanding opportunity to delve into host-microbe interactions and their underlying mysteries.