MICROBIOLOGISTS at the MIKRO in Leipzig

Great atmosphere in the audience and among the participants at the Microbe Slam at the end of the 6th joint VAAM/DGHM annual conference!

The competition was fierce and the result extremely close, as the applause even had to be measured with technical support using an "applausometer", all the entries received huge applause and it was impossible to determine the winner without the help of an aid. Local hero Inge Heuschkel in the end coming out on top with her presentation "United in Slime" against runner-up Marina Pekmezovic from Jena ("Yeasts as Divas and Spies"). Third place went to Kai Lucaßen from Cologne with his poem about "Aci and the strong men", while the other participants had their work cut out for them: Martin Kaltenpoth from Mainz on beetle symbionts with a minimal genetic configuration, Kevin Simon from Aachen and Xin You from Leipzig, each with a contribution on the useful properties of bacteriophages, were only narrowly beaten.

Science and fun were equally important in all the contributions, as moderator Jens Rudat had called for at the beginning and emphasised this very impressively with his perfect balancing act on stage.

Congratulations to all participants, we had a great time!