Events will be hosted January – December, 2025, usually on the last Wednesday of every month, 12:00 – 14:00 pm ET. Presented over Zoom.
After each talk, we will continue the discussions in an informal social meeting with MSE. All speakers and members of the audience are welcome to join the social meeting.
Hosted by: Sue Ishaq, MSE, and finacially supported by the University of Maine Institute of Medicine and the UMaine Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Committee.
Summary:
Microorganisms are critical to many aspects of biological life, including human health. The human body is a veritable universe for microorganisms: some pass through but once, some are frequent tourists, and some spend their entire existence in the confines of our body tissues. The collective microbial community, our microbiome, can be impacted by the details of our lifestyle, including diet, hygiene, health status, and more, but many are driven by social, economic, medical, or political constraints that restrict available choices that may impact our health. Access to resources is the basis for creating and resolving social equity—access to healthcare, healthy foods, a suitable living environment, and to beneficial microorganisms, but also access to personal and occupational protection to avoid exposure to infectious disease. This speaker series explores the way that microbes connect public policy, social disparities, and human health, as well as the ongoing research, education, policy, and innovation in this field.
You can find recordings from previous series here.
“Industrialization drives convergent microbial and physiological shifts in the human metaorganism”
Dr. Mathieu Groussin, PhD
Nov 19, 2025 12:00 ET. This event has passed, watch the recording here.
I am an Associate Professor at Kiel University and the Schleswig-Holstein University Hospital, since 2022. My research aims to advance knowledge, develop new theory, and create tools to investigate the ecology, evolution and functions of diverse human-associated microbes. I am particularly dedicated to identifying actionable features in host-associated microbiomes that can be used to improve human health. Recently, I focused on the building of large collections of human gut microbiomes and bacterial strains from worldwide human populations to study the impact of industrialization on gut bacterial genomes and functions. In 2016, I co-founded the non-profit Global Microbiome Conservancy (GMbC) initiative, an international consortium of 80+ collaborators (microbiomeconservancy.org). The mission of the GMbC is to understand the global diversity of human gut bacteria to create new knowledge on the microbiome through ethical practices, promote capacity building activities, and increase representation in microbiome science. Since its inception, I have been leading the GMbC consortium and its scientific program.
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The Ishaq Lab 