IIT Madras symposium to explore microbiomes’ role in health, environment and space

CHENNAI: From tackling childhood malnutrition and plastic pollution to advancing space exploration, the potential of microbiome research will be explored at an international symposium organised by IIT Madras from February 11 to 13, 2027.

The sixth IBSE International Symposium, titled ‘Microbiomes in Environment, Health, and Beyond’, will bring together more than 20 scientists from India and abroad to discuss microbial communities, their applications and computational approaches to studying them. The deadline for early-bird registration is October 31, 2026.

“Microbiomes shape the health of people and of the planet, and understanding them increasingly depends on bringing data, models and experiments together,” said Prof. Karthik Raman, coordinator of the Centre for Integrative Biology and Systems mEdicine (IBSE) and professor in the Department of Data Science and AI at IIT Madras.

The symposium is being organised by Karthik Raman and Kasthuri Venkateswaran, adjunct faculty at IIT Madras and a former researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Kasthuri spent more than two decades studying microbes in spacecraft assembly cleanrooms and aboard the International Space Station.

Highlighting the potential of extremophiles, microbes that thrive in harsh environments, Kasthuri said they could advance biotechnology, human health and space exploration.

Speakers include Rob Knight of the University of California San Diego, a co-founder of the Earth Microbiome Project and the American Gut Project; Daniel Segrè of Boston University; and Janet Jansson of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Sessions will cover microbial ecology, human and environmental microbiomes, bioinformatics, mathematical modelling and antimicrobial resistance, alongside discussions on astrobiology and planetary protection. Poster presentations and flash talks will offer early-career researchers opportunities to engage with leading scientists.

Established in 2015, IBSE has organised the symposium since 2018 to advance interdisciplinary research in biology and medicine.