“Anti-Inflammatory Interactions between Gut Microbiota and Broccoli Sprouts”
Dissertation presentation by Lola Holcomb, B.S.
April 17: 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. eastern daylight time
Advisor: Dr. Sue Ishaq, UMaine
Lola has been a very successful graduate student and has been featured in UMaine news articles: she has been the first author on a publication in 2023 on broccoli in an early-life mouse model of Crohn’s Disease, is co-first author on a broccoli sprout diet paper in review, contributed to another publication in 2023 in broccoli sprouts in a mouse model of ulcerative colitis, she won a graduate student research award from the Bioscience Association of Maine in 2024/2025, won a poster competition at a BioME research showcase in 2024, and has presented her research in Maine, California, and South Africa!
Lola Holcomb, B.S.
Doctorate of Philosophy candidate, Biomedical Science
Lola entered as a rotating first-year GSBSE student in March 2022, and declared the Ishaq Lab her dissertation lab soon after. Troubled with indecisiveness and the desire to research, well, everything, she quickly found that using bioinformatics and big data as a lens to study microbial ecology (and in time, its relation to social equity) allowed her to do the kind of meaningful interdisciplinary research she’s always wanted to do. Lola is currently working on 16s data analysis for other ongoing lab projects, comparing gut microbiomes of mouse models of Inflammatory Bowel Disease with broccoli as a dietary treatment. Lola is currently doing 16S data analysis for ongoing lab projects and developing a metagenomic analysis workflow to compare gut microbiomes of mouse models of Inflammatory Bowel Disease with broccoli as a dietary treatment. In addition to research, she instructs a graduate-level Genetics course, tutors several Biology undergraduate students, and serves as a GSBSE senator in the Graduate Student Government here at UMaine.
The Ishaq Lab 