The Microbes and Social Equity working group, and The University of Maine Institute of Medicine are presenting a virtual symposium on:
“Living in a Microbial World”
June 5 – 9th, 2023.
Register here! It is free, and required.
Format: virtual meeting, Zoom platform.
You can find the event page here. We update this with speaker information, changes to the schedule, and helpful links on a regulate basis.
Sessions format:
- 5 min intro to the session and speakers
- 3 consecutive 20-minute plenary style talks
- 15 min break
- 45 min panel discussion with speakers
- 15 min break
- 60 minutes of breakout room discussions
Draft Program:
Session 1: Reconsidering ‘One Health’ Through Microbes
Monday, June 5th, 11 am – 2:30 pm EST.
Microbes and Social Equity concepts are based on the idea that microbes connect individuals, societies, and ecosystems. One Health & the Environment concepts are based on similar ideas of connectivity. This session will explore the connections between MSE and One Health, how microbiome research connects to One Health, and how we can broaden our own research to include other disciplines. The primary goals for this session are 1) to convene researchers in multiple disciplines and envision ways to work together, and 2) to collaboratively generate definitions of One Health & the Environment with respect to microbiomes.
Hosts and organizers:
Dr. Tiff Mak (they/she), PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability at DTU. They work at the intersection of Microbial Ecology, Fermentation and Integrated Food Systems, and are interested in community interaction dynamics and relationality, from the scale of the microbial to the planetary.
Dr. Sue Ishaq, PhD, Assistant Professor of Animal and Veterinary Science, School of Food and Agriculture, University of Maine. Animal microbiomes, diet and gut, microbes and social equity.
Speakers:
Dr. Rob Beiko, PhD., is a Professor and Head of the Algorithms and Bioinformatics research cluster in the Faculty of Computer Science at Dalhousie University. His research aims to understand microbial diversity and evolution using machine learning, phylogenetics, time-series algorithms, and visualization techniques. His group is developing software tools and pipelines to comprehensively survey genes and mobile genetic elements in bacterial genomes, and understand how these genomes have been shaped by vertical inheritance, recombination, and lateral gene transfer. He is also a co-founder of Dartmouth Ocean Techonlogies, Inc., a developer of environmental DNA sampling devices.
Dr. Marta Scaglioni, PhD. is a Cultural Anthropologist and holds a PostDoc position at Cà Foscari University of Venice (Italy) within the frame of the ERC Project HealthXCross. She is interested in how microbiome research operates in the African continent and how microbial data, knowledge, and funding travel across national boundaries and across a Global North/Global South axis.
Dr. Lucilla Barchetta, PhD., is a Cultural Anthropologist and PhD in Urban Studies. She currently works as Postdoctoral Fellow within the ERC project Health X Cross based at the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, where she studies One Health epistemologies and open data governance in multidisciplinary data-centric science and collaboration.
Related to this session, here are recorded talks from previous MSE events:
- “The Human Microbiome and Health Inequities”, Dr. Katherine (Katie) Amato, PhD
- “20 important questions in microbial exposure and social equity + recent work on urban greenspace microbiomes”, Dr. Jake Robinson, PhD
- “Antimicrobial Resistance: Our Next Epidemic of Inequality?”, Dr. Maya Nadimpalli, MS, PhD
- “Risk factors for colonization with antibiotic-resistant bacteria in Guatemala and East Africa”, Dr. Douglas Call, PhD
- “Chasing Ghosts: Race, Racism, and the Future of Microbiome Research”, Dr. Travis J. De Wolfe, PhD; Dr. Mohammed Rafi Arefin, PhD; Dr. Maria Rebolleda-Gomez, PhD; and Dr. Amber Benezra, PhD
- “Decomposition as Life Politics” , Dr. Kristina Lyons, PhD
- “Deconstructing the individual: how science can materially advance using queer and feminist theory“, Dr. Patricia Kaishian, PhD
- “The Global Microbiome: microbes and public health beyond biology“, Dr. Amber Benezra, PhD
- “Embodied microbiomes: a 4E-cognition perspective on microbial life and social equity“, Dr. Francisco Parada Flores, PhD
- “Integrating Equity into Emerging Infectious Disease Research“, Dr. Kishana Taylor, MS, PhD
- “Microbes at the nexus of environmental, biological, and social research”, Dr. Sue Ishaq, PhD
- “Context-aware experimental designs“, multiple speakers
Session 2: Microbiomes and climate justice
Tuesday, June 6th, 11 am – 2:30 pm EST.
Social and economic activities have impacted microbes vital to the carbon cycle, while climate change has already begun to alter environmental microbiota. How do these reciprocal anthropogenic effects affect our health? How will such impacts follow our socio-economic fault-lines? This session will explore how we can use these links to inform communities, conservation movements, and policy.
Hosts and organizers:
Dr. Mike Friedman, PhD, MPH. Recently-retired Researcher and Lecturer in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Health.
Dr. Erin Eggleston, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biology, Middlebury College. Molecular microbial ecology, cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms, T. gondii detection in shellfish, coral holobiont thermal resilience, environmental microbes and social equity, and microbial community members involved in mercury methylation in St. Lawrence River wetland sediments
Speakers:
Dr. Arpita Bose, PhD., Associate Professor of Biology, Washington University.
Dr. Mallory Choudoir, PhD, Assistant Professor & Soil Microbiome Extension Specialist, Department of Plant & Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University. The goal of my research program is to translate microbiome science to sustainable agriculture and to develop microbial-centered solutions to agroecosystem challenges.
TBD
Related to this session, here are recorded talks from previous MSE events:
- “Microbiomes and climate change at the intersection of human and ecosystem health in the North”, Dr. Catherine Girard, PhD
- “Connecting environmental microbiomes to social (in)equity across temporal and ecological scales“, Dr. Erin Eggleston and Dr. Mallory Choudoir
- “Transforming your research into policy engagement“, multiple speakers
- “Community engagement and collaboration“, multiple speakers
- “MSE education and curriculum design“, multiple speakers
Session 3: Integrating the food systems through microbes
Wednesday, June 7th, 11 am – 2:30 pm EST.
Microorganisms tie food systems together, from soil to food processing to gut to waste products, and microbes can be used to create sustainable food production while working with the natural ecosystem. Traditional ecological knowledge, place-based food systems, and food sovereignty endeavors have long known that integrated food systems require a broader definition of “health”. This session will explore how microbiota can be used to sustain and integrate food, communities, and ecosystems.
Hosts and organizers:
Dr. Tiff Mak (they/she), PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability at DTU. They work at the intersection of Microbial Ecology, Fermentation and Integrated Food Systems, and are interested in community interaction dynamics and relationality, from the scale of the microbial to the planetary.
Dr. Sue Ishaq, PhD, Assistant Professor of Animal and Veterinary Science, School of Food and Agriculture, University of Maine. Animal microbiomes, diet and gut, microbes and social equity.
Speakers:
Dr. Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann (she/her/hers) PhD., is an Inuk microbiologist from Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland). After finishing her PhD in microbial metagenomics at the Technical University of Denmark in 2017 she returned to her birth-town Nuuk, to lead the research project the Greenland Diet Revolution. Her research centers the animal-sourced Indigenous diet of Inuit. The focus of the research is the human and microbial culture of Inuit foods, and how these foods connect our inside to our outside. Dr. Hauptmann is currently an assistant professor at Ilisimatusarfik – the University of Greenland and a part-time assistant professor at The University of Copenhagen.
Dr. Nina Moeller, PhD, Associate Professor Research, Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University. Currently Associate Professor of Political Ecology and People’s Knowledge at Coventry University (UK) and a researcher in Sustainability Transitions at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), she has a mixed academic background in philosophy, sociology and anthropology. Her research interests comprise the dynamics of sustainability transitions, including their unintended socio-ecological effects; diversity of knowledge and value systems; and more-than-human relations. Her interest in plant medicine, fermentation, traditional health and food systems goes beyond research and has been shaped in significant ways through friendships and exchanges with indigenous Amazonians and subsistence farmers across the world. She has worked in Latin America and Europe – as academic as well as consultant to indigenous federations, NGOs and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization
Dr. Kolawole Banwo, PhD. is a Lecturer and Researcher in the Food Microbiology, Biotechnology and Safety Unit of the Department of Microbiology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, where he teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses on food microbiology, safety assessment, quality control and usefulness of food grade microorganisms. He mentors young academics in the area of food safety and quality assurance in his Department and University, and is passionate about food safety and volunteers on food safety education to artisanal fermented food producers and handlers. His current areas of research are exploration of the food microbiome of traditional fermented foods to increase potentials in bioactive components and the production of functional foods and the detoxification of mycotoxin and metabolites profile from traditional fermented foods in Nigeria using lactic acid bacteria and yeasts in collaboration with the Aflasafe Unit of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria. Kolawole is passionate about food safety and volunteers on food safety education to artisanal fermented food producers and handlers. Dr Banwo holds a B.Sc and M.Sc degrees in General Microbiology, while his Ph.D. degree was in Food Microbiology from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He is a recipient of many awards locally and internationally. He was on a brief collaborative research visit in 2019 to the Department of Plant Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, USA. He is a member of several microbiology professional bodies.
Related to this session, here are recorded talks from previous MSE events:
- “An Indigenous Micro- to Meta-Narrative: Microbes and Social Equity”. Dr. Nicole Redvers, ND, MPH.
- “Analyzing and harnessing microbiomes from Soil to Society: Towards sustainable and equitable agricultural systems“, Dr. Frank Carbonero, PhD
- “What Connects Us: stories of working across difference with humans and microbes”, Dr. Maya Hey, PhD
- “Intimate Exchange and Queer Ecologies”, Dr. Gabriel N. Rosenberg, PhD
- “Teaching with microbes: Biopolitical lessons from fermentation”. Dr. Megan Carney, PhD.
Session 4: Elevating human nutrition and microbiome practice
Thursday, June 8th, 11 am – 2:30 pm EST.
Human nutrition research and practice provides a unique opportunity to provide equitable health and microbiome care, to engage with various communities, and to foster interdisciplinary research and educational programs. Given the complexity and nuance of evidence-based nutrition delivery, the guiding ideas of MSE can provide a conceptual structure. This session will present research and case studies which create a professional development framework, such that attendees can envision and learn to apply the framework to their own project / professional development.
Hosts and organizers:
Dr. Ashley M. Toney, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute. Translational/Clinical Nutrition Researcher focused on Latine Health Disparities.
Dr. Patricia Wolf, PhD, RD, Assistant Professor at Purdue University. Microbial Metabolism, Health Disparities Research, Nutrition and Dietetics
Dr. Sue Ishaq, PhD, Assistant Professor of Animal and Veterinary Science, School of Food and Agriculture, University of Maine. Animal microbiomes, diet and gut, microbes and social equity.
Speakers:
Dr. Annabel Biruete, PhD, RD, is an Assistant Professor and Registered Dietitian in the Department of Nutrition Science at Purdue University and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Division of Nephrology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Her broad clinical interest is nutrition in kidney diseases. Annabel’s research aims to study the effects of nutritional and pharmacological therapies for chronic kidney disease on the gastrointestinal tract and gut microbiome. Additionally, Annabel is interested in improving outcomes in the Hispanic/LatinX community living with chronic kidney disease, using language- and culturally-concordant lifestyle interventions.
Dr. Babajide A. Ojo, PhD, Postdoc in the Pediatric Gastroenterology department at Stanford Medicine
TBD
Related to this session, here are recorded talks from previous MSE events:
- “Diet, Microbial Metabolites, and Cancer Disparities”. Dr. Patricia Wolf, PhD, RD.
- “Broccoli Sprout Bioactives and Gut Microbiota: A Dietary Approach for Prevention and Management of Inflammatory Bowel Disease”, Dr. Yanyan Li, PhD
- “Exploring Health Determinants, Gut Microbiome, and Health Outcomes in Immigrants”, Dr. Dany Fanfan, Ph.D., MSN, RN
- “Intersecting breastmilk and microbiome science with the complexity of working with humans in a clinical context”, Dr. Merilee Brockway, PhD RN IBCLC
- “Teaching with microbes: Biopolitical lessons from fermentation”. Dr. Megan Carney, PhD.
- “The Human Microbiome and Health Inequities”, Dr. Katherine (Katie) Amato, PhD
- “It’s about time: ecological and eco-evolutionary dynamics across the scales”, Dr. Liat Shenhav, PhD
- “The human microbiome and cancer risk: setting the stage for innovative studies to address cancer disparities”, Dr. D. Armen Byrd, MPH, PhD
Session 5: MSE Member Research Showcase
Friday, June 9th, 11 am – 2:30 pm EST.
Session hosts and organizers: Emily Wissel, Curtis Tilves
Session Scope: MSE members will be sharing their own work in short presentations to showcase the variety of disciplines of our members’ work. The presentation list will include students and non-researchers, and research on microbiomes, people, ecosystems, and more even if it is not related to microbes and/or social equity.
Abstracts will be made available in late May.
Planning committee:
- Sue Ishaq (Lead Organizer), Tiff Mak, Ashley Toney, Gwynne Mhuireach, Rachel Gregor, Carla Bonilla, Erica Gardner, Emily Wissel, Kieran O’Doherty, Erin Eggleston, Mike Friedman, McK Mollner, Erica Diaz-Almeyda, Curtis Tilves, Patrick Horve, Leslie Dietz.
- Organizing administrative support: Cecile Ferguson, UMaine Institute of Medicine
The Microbes and Social Equity Working Group is grateful to the University of Maine and the UMaine Institute of Medicine for providing financial and material support for this virtual meeting.
The Ishaq Lab 