The Burdman lab
Plant-bacteria interactions

International teaching

Together with Dr. Maria Julia Pianzzola, Dr. Maria Ines Siri [both from the Division of Microbiology, Faculty of Chemistry, Universidad de la Republica (UDELAR), Montevideo, Uruguay] and Prof. Leonardo De La Fuente (Auburn University, USA), we taught a graduate-level course on Molecular Plant-Pathogen Interactions at UDELAR. This was a 2-week-course (about 4 h-classes per day), funded by the Uruguayan Agency for Investigation and Innovation (ANII) and taught in Spanish. The course was given in July 2009, May 2011 and September 2013, focusing on basic and applied aspects of interactions between plants and plant-pathogenic bacteria.

In November 2016 the course was modified to include laboratory practices and a bioinformatics section. The course was renamed to Molecular Biology of Plant-Pathogenic Bacteria: Bioinformatics and Experimental Approaches. It was given during 2 weeks with about 8 h-classes and laboratories per day, and the following scientists joined to the team: Prof. Joao Carlos Setubal (University of Sao Paulo, Brazil), Dr. Jose Carlos Huguet-Tapia (University of Florida, USA) and Prof. Elena Orellano (Instituto de Biologia Molecular y Celular, Argentina). The course was supported by ANII and CABBIO (Argentinian-Brazilian Center for Biotechnology) and had the participation of Uruguayan, Argentinian, Brazilian and Colombian students.  

In October 2018, the course was modified again including also animal pathogens, and being renamed to Knowing the enemy: tools for the investigation of interactions between pathogenic bacteria and their hosts. The course was supported by several local and international agencies, and had attendance of over 20 students from Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Peru. The following international scientists joined the team: Prof. Mario Feldman (Washington University, USA), Prof. Joao Carlos Setubal (University of Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Prof. Eleonora Garcia Vescovi (Instituto Nacional de Biologia Molecular y Celular, Rosario, Argentina). The course was coordinated by Drs. Lucia Yim, Laura Betancor, Maria Ines Siri and Maria Julia Pianzzola (UDELAR, Uruguay) and had participation of other UDELAR teachers.