A warm welcome to Egmond aan Zee for the 11th Symposium on Lactic Acid Bacteria. The theme of this meeting is “Embarking on 30 more years of LAB research” and that is exactly what this Symposium intends to do: to enthuse especially the younger generation of LAB researchers to keep up the excellent work performed in the field. Looking back 30 years [YES, indeed, although we celebrated 30 years of LAB research at LAB10, in fact this meeting is exactly 30 years after LAB1 ;-) ] to when this series of Symposia started, it is incredible how much progress the field has made and one can only look forward and wonder what the LAB science will look like 30 years from now. Hopefully, many of the young scientists who are here now (for the first or even already for a second time) will be there and will have been part of the exciting developments ahead and will have shaped that future. It is this incentive that started the series of LAB Symposia in the first place and that we will maintain in future LAB Symposia.
In this Poster Abstract Book you will find well over 300 poster abstracts, of which over 20 have been selected for short oral presentations in the plenary part of the meeting as well as during 2 Thematic Sessions. Several more will be presented in poster flashes. It is the LAB11 Organising Committee’s firm belief that the importance and viability of the field of LAB research, both the fundamental and the application-oriented research, are reflected in these posters, which are the first indicators of how the field will develop.
Because of their importance in allowing researchers to communicate directly on exciting new findings, concepts and ideas and to contact colleagues with different specializations, all of which are paramount to scientific development, the posters will be on display during the whole Symposium.
We really hope you will enjoy the meeting and are looking forward to hosting and meeting you at LAB11!
On behalf of the LAB11 Organising Committee,
Jan Kok