Category: Updates

“Biopolitics and the human microbiome” at the Microbes and Social Equity virtual symposium, June 14, 2021

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The Microbes and Social Equity working group and The University of Maine Institute of Medicine present an inaugural symposium on:

“Microbes, Social Equity, and Rural Health”

June 14 – 18th, 2021

Format: virtual meeting, Zoom platform.

Day 1 of the Microbes and Social Equity virtual symposium

Session 1: “Biopolitics and the human microbiome”

Monday, June 14th, 13:00 ~ 16:30 EST.  Registration for this session is closed.

Session leaders: Michael Friedman and Sue Ishaq

The human microbiota is a mediator between social determinants of health and health outcomes. Social determinants, such as racism, sexism and social class position are power relations that shape human microbial communities by providing access and exposure to varying biological factors. In turn, shifts in such communities are associated with distinct health outcomes.  This opening session will introduce the concept of microbes and social equity, and open the discussion on how to create change.

Program and Registration

A full speaker list and program, and details of each day can be found here.

Registration will occur for each (day) section individually, so participants can select which topics to participate in, or all of them. 

Registration is free and open to the public.

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.   

Many human clinical conditions or diseases have been established as being related  to the state of the human microbiome.  It is known that collective social inequity can drive the prevalence, morbidity, and mortality of some of these diseases or conditions. When access to a nutritious  diet and healthcare are impeded by social inequity, these disparities can also affect the human microbiome; this can further contribute to reduced or poorly functioning microbiomes. 

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. The emergence of the SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19) pandemic has dramatically altered our daily lives and the availability and ability to access essential resources, which has been worsened by pre-existing social inequity. Yet, the pandemic has also highlighted the inherent social disparity among those more likely to be exposed to infectious diseases.  

This meeting highlights recent investigations into beneficial and detrimental instances of microbial exposure, in the context of how social policy may mediate or deepen disparities between and within populations. In addition to invited presentations on thematic sections, each section will involve a discussion session using smaller breakout groups, to facilitate conversations and brainstorming between attendees.  These groups will be arranged around smaller themes or research questions, and group members will identify knowledge gaps for future research, as well as list actionable steps that can be taken using existing research to promote equitable social policy.  Ideally, meeting attendees will gain knowledge, collaborators and connections, and a path forward for turning their research into evidence-based policy to support public health.

Meeting dynamics

Unlike traditional symposium formats, this meeting will present some plenary-style talks by experts in the field, including biological scientists, social scientists, practitioners or policy makers, as well as facilitate discussion among participants. Each thematic section will feature 90 minutes of talks, which will be recorded and made publicly available after the live session.  After each plenary session, there will be 90 minutes of discussion in groups led by speakers and MSE group members, and assisted by notetakers, with ~10 participants per breakout room. Participants will be encouraged to “problem solve” a suggested topic or one of their own choosing.  The goal is to create action items that are meaningful for group participants, such as ideas for curricula development, identifying research needs or best practices, suggestions for engaging research in policy, and more.

Microbes and Social Equity special session at the Ecology Social of America 2021 meeting.

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Our proposal for a special session on ‘microbes and social equity’ has been approved for the Ecology Society of America scientific conference this summer, August 2 – 6, 2021! This year’s meeting will be entirely virtual, allowing us to host panel speakers from various locations. This session requires registration to the ESA meeting.

ESA Special Session 19205: “Microbiomes and Social Equity”

09:30 – 12:30 PST/ 12:30 – 15:30 EST

Microbiomes — environmental, human and other organismal symbionts — are increasingly seen as critical physiological, developmental and ecological mediators within and among living things, and between the latter and our abiotic environments. Therefore, it is no surprise that microbial communities may be altered, depleted or disrupted by social and economic determinants. Social inequality entails concrete alterations and differentiation of microbial communities among social groups, by way of such factors as nutritional access, environmental pollutants or green space availability, often to the detriment of human and ecosystem health. This special session will be organized as a panel discussion with break-out groups in order to provide participants the opportunity to discuss the ways in which social inequity interacts with microbiomes, and how we might intervene as scientists and communities to promote favorable microbiomes while advancing social equality. We hope to generate research questions and actionable items.

Panel speakers: Michael Friedman, Naupaka Zimmerman, Justin Stewart, Monica Trujillo, Sue Ishaq, Sierra Jech, Jennifer Bhatnagar, and Ariangela Kozik

Registration open for the Microbes and Social Equity virtual symposium, June 14 – 18, 2021

sueishaqlabLeave a comment

The Microbes and Social Equity working group and The University of Maine Institute of Medicine present an inaugural symposium on:

“Microbes, Social Equity, and Rural Health”

June 14 – 18th, 2021

Format: virtual meeting, Zoom platform.

Program and Registration

Registration, a full speaker list and program, and details of each day can be found here.

Registration will occur for each (day) section individually, so participants can select which topics to participate in, or all of them. 

Registration is free and open to the public.

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.   

Many human clinical conditions or diseases have been established as being related  to the state of the human microbiome.  It is known that collective social inequity can drive the prevalence, morbidity, and mortality of some of these diseases or conditions. When access to a nutritious  diet and healthcare are impeded by social inequity, these disparities can also affect the human microbiome; this can further contribute to reduced or poorly functioning microbiomes. 

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. The emergence of the SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19) pandemic has dramatically altered our daily lives and the availability and ability to access essential resources, which has been worsened by pre-existing social inequity. Yet, the pandemic has also highlighted the inherent social disparity among those more likely to be exposed to infectious diseases.  

This meeting highlights recent investigations into beneficial and detrimental instances of microbial exposure, in the context of how social policy may mediate or deepen disparities between and within populations. In addition to invited presentations on thematic sections, each section will involve a discussion session using smaller breakout groups, to facilitate conversations and brainstorming between attendees.  These groups will be arranged around smaller themes or research questions, and group members will identify knowledge gaps for future research, as well as list actionable steps that can be taken using existing research to promote equitable social policy.  Ideally, meeting attendees will gain knowledge, collaborators and connections, and a path forward for turning their research into evidence-based policy to support public health.

Meeting dynamics

Unlike traditional symposium formats, this meeting will present some plenary-style talks by experts in the field, including biological scientists, social scientists, practitioners or policy makers, as well as facilitate discussion among participants. Each thematic section will feature 90 minutes of talks, which will be recorded and made publicly available after the live session.  After each plenary session, there will be 90 minutes of discussion in groups led by speakers and MSE group members, and assisted by notetakers, with ~10 participants per breakout room. Participants will be encouraged to “problem solve” a suggested topic or one of their own choosing.  The goal is to create action items that are meaningful for group participants, such as ideas for curricula development, identifying research needs or best practices, suggestions for engaging research in policy, and more.

Ishaq Lab team 2020/21 takes a group photo for the very first time

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We finally managed it: from 5 different universities in 4 different geographic locations across two time zones, the core Ishaq Lab team took a group photo despite having been around for over a year. And, just in time, as several of our members (and selected associated members) will be matriculating soon!

Tindall, at Montana State University, is planning to defend her master’s thesis in May and moving forward with her planned career in sustainable agriculture in the Great Plains. Emily, our first undergrad researcher at Maine, will be graduating and heading to Kansas State University School of Veterinary Medicine to prepare for her dream career at her dream school. Jade will be defending her undergraduate honor’s thesis in May in preparation for heading to Glasglow, Scotland for her senior year, as part of a 7 year (undergrad + veterinary school) program between UMaine and veterinary schools there. Grace is graduating with her bachelor’s and will be working in research for a bit before deciding on a graduate program, and in the meantime, will be writing up the results from a data analysis project into a scientific manuscript for publication (her first!). Dorien is also about to graduate with her bachelor’s, and will be working in research before matching with a graduate program in psychology.

It has been an honor to work with these students as they develop their professional skills and share my research journey for a bit, and the Ishaq Lab wishes them continued success on their next phase!

The 2020/21 core Ishaq Lab team.

Collaborative project on climate change and infectious disease is funded!

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I’m pleased to announce that I’m leading a research project this year that was just funded by the University of Maine Rural Health and Wellbeing Grand Challenge Grant Program! This is a collaborative project developed by myself, Danielle Levesque, UMaine; Pauline Kamath, UMaine; and Jason Johnston, UMPI.

The project will provide preliminary data for a larger collaboration, and will support up to 5 undergraduate researchers over the next year, including Rebecca French and Catie Sullivan who have recently joined the Ishaq Lab team. Those 5 students will be mentored across the four labs on two different campuses, and will be involved in the project management experimental design, sample collection and processing, writing, presenting, and social media outreach aspects of the project to give them an interdisciplinary and holistic experience in research.

The full program announcement can be found on the UMaine site:

Rural Health and Wellbeing Grand Challenge Grant Program awards announced

“Climate Change Effects on Wild Mammal Ranges and Infectious Disease Exposure Risk at Maine Farms.”

Project team: Suzanne Ishaq (PI), UMaine; Danielle Levesque, UMaine; Pauline Kamath, UMaine; Jason Johnston, UMPI.

Abstract: Climate change alters the range distribution of wild animals, often causing species to move further north in Maine, and two recent examples include the Southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) and the white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus). Such movements bring new parasites and endemic pathogens north, as well, which may cause significant disease in native wildlife and local livestock who are naive to these microorganisms. Further, heat stress affects the physiology of mammals and humans, increasing their susceptibility to infections originating in the gut, increasing parasite shedding, or altering zoonotic infectious disease risk by affecting animals, humans, and microorganisms. Collectively, this begs the question, if climate change affects wild mammal health and infectious disease susceptibility; will that also affect infectious disease exposure risk at Maine farms?

Figure 1: a schematic of our research question, drawn somewhat facetiously.

Tindall won first prize in a graduate students poster competition!

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Congratulations to Tindal Ouverson for winning first prize in the graduate students poster competition at the 2021 Montana State University LRES research colloquium!

Tindall is a master’s of science in Land Resources and Environmental Sciences at Montana State University, working with advisers Drs. Fabian Menalled and Tim Seipel. Tindall and I have been working closely over the past three-ish years on soil microbiomes, and she is preparing to defend her thesis this May.

Check out her recently published paper: Temporal soil bacterial community responses to cropping systems and crop identity in dryland agroecosystems of the Northern Great Plains. 

Nick Hershbine is awarded UMaine Undergraduate Student Employee of the Year award!

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Nick Hershbine, undergraduate student majoring in Ecology and Environmental Sciences in the Ishaq Lab has been awarded a 2020-2021 University of Maine Undergraduate Student Employee of the Year!!!!

Nick Hershbine, collecting soil using a soil corer in a low bush blueberry field, with a pone forest in the background.

Nick began working with me in summer 2020, on a collaborative project looking at microbes in the soil around low bush blueberry plants. At the time, he was early in his undergraduate program and having no prior laboratory skills. In addition, because of the pandemic, we have minimized interactions between students, such that Nick has primarily been working independently with occasional meetings with me to discuss his progress. Despite all of that, he has exceeded my expectations for his capacity to handle this tricky project, and more than that, to have the independence to make it his own and contribute to protocol development. Nick has had a positive impact on the lab, within the confines of the limited interactions between students allowed at this time.  He is kind and friendly, and makes the lab a welcoming place to work. Congrats on the award!!

Johanna Holman is awarded UMaine Grad Student Employee of the Year!

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Johanna Holman, Master’s of Nutrition student in the Ishaq Lab has been awarded the 2020-2021 University of Maine Graduate Student Employee of the Year!!!!

I met Johanna in the fall of 2019, when I was just establishing myself as a new Assistant Professor in the School of Food and Agriculture, and she was looking for an advisor for a graduate degree.  Right away, she impressed me with her background and enthusiasm for research.  I learned that Johanna began her undergraduate study as an art student before transitioning fluidly to science.  I see this is an asset – the ability to design visual aid and graphical representations of data is hugely important to science and sadly, not always a skill that scientists are trained to do. Johanna also had a number of service industry jobs, and initially in that first meeting, she was somewhat apologetic for not having been devoted to science jobs from the start.  I countered that I was pleased to see that she has worked in other industries, specifically in difficult service-related jobs.  It is often more important to have patience, dedication, and strong interpersonal skills, such as those gained by working in customer-facing jobs.  I believe that Johanna has and will continue to succeed because of her varied education and experience.

Once she became a science student during her undergraduate study, she worked in the laboratories of Drs. Yanyan Li, Associate Professor (of nutrition) in the College of Science and Humanities, and Tao Zhang, Assistant Professor of Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences, both of Husson University in Bangor.  There, she has performed nutritional biochemistry, worked with mouse models, and developed an idea of what she wanted to study in graduate school and pursue as a career. 

Johanna officially joined my lab and started as a Master’s Student of Nutrition at UMaine in fall 2020, and immediately got to work.  Not only did she begin preparations for the massive undertaking that is part of her project, but she began mentoring several undergraduates on and off campus, and started as a first time teaching assistant for the Chemistry department, which required navigating virtual labs.

Johanna’s project focuses on whether consumption of specific broccoli sprout preparations will elicit changes in the gut microbiota, to the effect of improving the production of microbiota-specific bioactives that have local anti-inflammatory effects, and promoting intestinal homeostasis by reducing dysbiosis. This project is a continuation of previous research on bioactive compounds in broccoli, completed in the labs of Drs. Yanyan Li and Tao Zhang at Husson University in Bangor.  While some of the work may be similar, the skill set is entirely new.  For the winter break, Johanna was managing a 40-mouse study for 5 weeks, which has resulted in hundreds of samples collected, hundreds of data time points, and enough follow-up laboratory and analysis work to keep her occupied for an entire year.  She has learned how to culture bacteria in an anaerobic chamber, which is a notoriously fussy machine that requires regular attention, as well as to grow them under different conditions for biochemical analysis and enzyme activity.  She will be learning DNA extraction, DNA sequencing library preparation, DNA sequence analysis, and will lead the generation of a large manuscript on the results.

It might seem too early to recommend a graduate student for this award after just one semester, but it is remarkable that a new master’s student could achieve all of this in their first semester during a pandemic.  I have informally mentored graduate and undergraduate students for years, and it is easy to spot the ones who will go far in science. Johanna has a highly successful career ahead of her, and I am honored to be one stop on that path.  This award will not only acknowledge the incredible amount of work she has accomplished, but it will support an early career researcher who has every quality to make research a hospitable and collaborate place.

Stacks of petri dishes filled with culture media, some of which have bacterial colonies growing on them.
Stacks of petri dishes filled with culture media. The stacks are inside of a vinyl anaerobic chamber, for use with bacterial culturing.
A messy laboratory bench showing dozens of jars, bottles, and graduated cylinders, all of various sizes.
Person in a research facility holding up their arm with a mouse on it. Person is wearing a hairnet, nitrile gloves, surgical mask, and a surgical gown. They are holding their left arm up to the camera to show off a mouse with dark brown fur sitting on their arm. In the background is a metal shelf with containers of research materials.

Save the date for the Microbes and Social Equity symposium!

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Sign up for updates!!

We are in the processing of finalizing our speaker list and program, as well as creating registration links. Stay tuned for more information.

In the meantime, please enjoy our free speaker series!

Applications still open for Assistant Extension of Professor / Assistant Professor of Animal Science at the University of Maine

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The University of Maine Cooperative Extension invites applications for a full-time, fiscal-year, continuing contract eligible faculty appointment as Assistant Extension Professor and Assistant Professor of Animal Science. 

This position is an 85% appointment with UMaine Extension and a 15% teaching appointment through the University of Maine School of Food and Agriculture.

The successful candidate will be located on the campus of the University of Maine in Orono, Maine.

The faculty member in this position will develop and lead educational outreach and applied research with an emphasis on dairy science; work with other UMaine faculty and professionals, advisory boards and volunteers to offer off-campus programs addressing the educational needs of the Maine dairy industry and other agricultural industries; teach undergraduate courses in the School of Food and Agriculture (SFA).

For a complete job description and to apply: https://umaine.hiretouch.com/job-details?jobid=66728

Search Timeline is as follows:
Review of applications to begin: April 15, 2021
Screening interviews to begin no earlier than: April 30, 2021
On-site (or virtual visit) interviews to begin no earlier than: May 15, 2021
Tentative start date: July 1, 2021