The 33rd International Specialised Symposium on Yeast (ISSY33), organised under the auspices of the International Commission on Yeasts, with support from the Microbiology Society, will take place at University College Cork, Cork, Ireland. The title of the meeting is ‘Exploring and Engineering Yeasts for Industrial Application’.

Yeasts are unicellular fungi used in many sectors of biotechnology to make products such as beverages, foods, pharmaceuticals and chemicals. This meeting will examine the basic physiology and metabolism of industrial yeast strains. The potential to further exploit the natural biodiversity of yeasts to create select or create new strains for applications will also be considered. New genetic tools and approaches have opened up new possibilities for reprogramming pathways to produce novel products in yeast and there will be a particular focus on yeast cell factories.