Abstract
The Keystone Symposia will be hosting a conference organized by Emily Balskus, Peter Turnbaugh, and Dennis Wolan entitled "Microbiome: Chemical Mechanisms and Biological Consequences" 10 to 14 March 2019 in Montreal, Québec, Canada. Our goal for this meeting is to focus attention on the intersection of chemistry and biology by bringing together scientists in these two disciplines, while also including talks about other hosts, environmental microbiomes, and multidisciplinary research platforms. The focus of this conference is to emphasize our community's need to continue adopting other scientific disciplines to ultimately generate a broad understanding of microbiomes and the cross talk microbes have with their environment. We are inviting speakers from across the globe that interrogate fundamental chemical processes of microbiomes, including small-molecule and xenobiotic metabolism, natural product synthesis, and the many microbial enzymes responsible for the production of these biologically relevant metabolites. The ability to link the chemical foundations of microbes with biological outcomes would provide tremendous contributions to this emerging field of study.