

The International Conference on Halophilic Microorganisms is held every three years to gather the community of scientists working on the different aspects of halophilic microbes, from molecular and cellular biology, to ecology, and biotechnology. This community has a longstanding tradition of international collaboration and encompasses researchers from all over the world.
The 2022 will be the second Halophiles meeting to be celebrated in Alicante and the third in Spain. This is not a mere confidence since there is a long tradition on the study of halophiles in this country, and in the extremophiles in general, as evidenced by the Spanish National Excellence Network of Extremophiles, active since 1995.
We encourage the active participation of Early Career Scientists both through the presentation of their results and their active role in the discussions. To this end, we have the support of FEMS which will fund junior research grants.
The host institution for the next edition, the University of Alicante, has been involved in the study of halophiles since its beginning and harbour several groups of microbiologists and biochemists working in this field.
We are very looking forward to meeting you in Alicante.
The Organizing Committee
Hypersaline environments are globally relevant since hypersaline waters account for around a half of the total inland waters. Some of these environments also provide relevant ecosystem services and economic benefits, as is the case of coastal solar salterns, which have also been used as models for the study of halophilic microorganisms in their natural environments.
Hypersaline systems harbour a rich community of microorganisms and their viruses, which present unique biochemical and genetic adaptations and cellular characteristics. Furthermore, many hypersaline systems are dominated by Archaea and present the highest concentration of virus-like particles reported so far. Among the halophilic microbes, the recent discovery of the nanohaloarchaea is emerging as a new paradigm of archaeal symbiosis.
Some high salt settings are among the harshest habitats in the planet, either by displaying different types of extreme conditions, such as the acidic hypersaline lakes, or by their extremely low water activity and the chaotropic nature of their salts. High salt environments have also been proposed as analogues for exploring extraterrestrial life and are a source of compounds of biotechnological interest.
The area of Alicante is an excellent scenario for the study of halophiles since it harbors many inland and coastal salterns, which are among the best studied in the world. Indeed, it was studying an archaeon isolated from one of these salterns when Prof. Francis M. Mojica discovered the CRISPR system and proposed its role as a viral immunity mechanism. As it is very well known, this discovery was the basis for the development of a new genomic editing tool, which was the object of the 2020 Nobel Prize to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna (“Genetic scissors: a tool for rewriting the code of life”).
9th February 2022
18th April 2022
2nd May 2022
11th May 2022
1st June 2022
EXTENDED 20th June 2022
26th - 29th June 2022
Alo Congress – VB Group
Numancia 73, 7º C-2
08029 Barcelona - Spain
Phone: (+34) 933 633 954
secretary@halophiles2022.eu