Mark your calendars – I have been invited to give two presentations on microbes and social equity in general, and the MSE group in particular, this winter! Both events require prior registration.
You can also catch up with our recent publication as well as the other awesome work in the mSystems Special Series: Social Equity as a Means of Resolving Disparities in Microbial Exposure.
10th annual conference of inVIVO Planetary Health
This year’s theme is “Project Earthrise: From Healing to Flourishing for People, Places and Planet”
1-7 December 2021. Virtual conference, with on-demand and live-stream content. Registration is required.
From the event site: “The meeting will bring together a tremendous network of like-minded people from diverse fields whose interests span from planetary/population/ environmental health to microbial ecology/ systems biology and the deep biological mechanisms—all aiming to work in a more integrated systems framework as we seek to improve personal, environmental, economicand societal health alike. As always, our emphasis on meaningful collaborations and productive friendships as on the data and opportunities we generate.”
My talk title is pending.
2nd Rhode Island Microbiome Symposium at URI College of Pharmacy
14 January, 2022. In person. Registration is required.
From the event site: “The goal of this symposium is to promote microbiome and microbial research in Rhode Island and the Northeast by bringing together researchers from state universities and hospitals who currently work on microbiome research or who are interested in starting microbiome research. We hope this symposium will stimulate networking and result in new collaborations, grant proposals and manuscripts. While the scope is broad to encourage participation, the general focus will be on microbiome research relevant to the State of Rhode Island such as ocean health, aquaculture and precision medicine initiatives.”

Dr. Suzanne Ishaq
University of Maine
School of Food and Agriculture
Title: Microbes at the Nexus of Environmental, Biological, and Social Research
Invited Keynote Speaker
Dr. Ishaq received her doctorate in Animal, Nutrition and Food Science from the University of Vermont in 2015 where her graduate study focused on the rumen microbiology of the moose. She held post-doctoral positions at Montana State University, and a research faculty position at the University of Oregon. Since 2019, her lab in Maine focuses on host-associated microbial communities in animals and humans, and, how host and microbes interact in the gut.
In addition to her research on gut microbes, Dr. Ishaq is the founder of the Microbes and Social Equity working group. This group formed to examine, publicize, and promote a research program on the reciprocal impact of social inequality and microbiomes, both human and environmental. Membership is free and open to all.
Photo credit: Patrick Wine, University of Maine