Tag: conferences

Summer 2023 wrap up

Sue IshaqLeave a comment

It feels like the summer semester just began, and here we are, already preparing for fall classes! There has been so much going on in the lab that I wasn’t able to keep up with regular posts, so here are some of the highlights.

Conferences

I attended four symposia/conferences this summer, starting with the virtual MSE 2023 summer symposium in early June, featuring 4 days of invited talks organized around themes, and a 5th day featuring contributed short talks (something new we tried this year). The whole week was fantastic and sparked thoughtful conversation on the using of microbial communities to reduce disparities in positive and negative health outcomes, living conditions, and more. You can find the recorded content on the symposium event page.

Next, I went to the Microbiome Day at Boston University in early July in Boston, MA, where I gave the keynote talk.

I went to the annual meeting for the American Society for Nutrition in Boston, MA in mid-July, where PhD students Johanna Holman, Lola Holcomb, and master’s student Marissa Kinney all presented posters, and most of the lab was able to make it to a puzzle quest at Boda Borg.

And, I went to the Ecological Society of America annual meeting in Portland, OR in August to present some recent work on scallop larval rearing tanks and the bacterial communities we found there. That included an unexpected effect of coastal water dynamics and the phase of the moon. That work has recently been published.

Lab

The lab has been bustling all summer as we work on several projects. Master’s student Ayodeji Olaniyi has been working on a project to identify Vibrio bacteria isolated from the sides of scallop larvae hatchery tanks, as part of a larger project investigating microbial communities in hatcheries.

Marissa and visiting postdoc Gloria Adjapong have been preparing a 16S rRNA sequencing library for hundreds of scallop tank biofilm samples we collected last year, although I don’t have any photos of that.

Johanna has been leading a team of students (Alexis Kirkendall, Lilian Nowak, Aakriti Sharma, and Jaymie Sideaway) on a culturing project to screen hundreds of bacterial isolates that were collected from the gastrointestinal tracts of mice eating borccoli sprouts. We are testing them for their capacity to metabolize different glucosinolates into anti-inflammatory compounds, as well as grow on different media types. In the process, we found that the bacteria we are using as a positive control likes to move from one test well to another when its favorite media is available — but not when glucose is present.

Looking ahead to fall

This fall, the lab will be supporting Ayodeji to write and defend his thesis, as he is currently looking for research/technician jobs. His thesis focuses on Vibrio bacteria in scallop larvae hatcheries.

We’ll also be preparing to welcome Alexis back as a graduate student in January 2024, to continue her work on bacteria isolated from mice eating broccoli sprouts.

I’ll be teaching two classes this fall, AVS 254 Intro to Animal Microbiomes, and AVS 454/554 DNA Sequencing Data Analysis lab, and with 90 students enrolled between them I will luckily be assisted by Ayodeji and Lola, who will be co-grading assignments with me.

Finally, I’ve got more travel coming up soon, as I’ll be giving a talk at the 9th SoCal Microbiome Symposium in September!

Upcoming presentations at the 2023 Ecological Society of America annual meeting!

Sue IshaqLeave a comment

Ecological Society of America meeting, Aug 6 – 11, 2023, Portland, Oregon

Scallop microbes and sustainable aquaculture: host-microbe dynamics situated in environmental and social context.

Presentation ID: 1372900

Session Information

Session Title: Microbes as Tools to Solve Ecological Problems for All
Session Type: Inspire Session
Date: Thursday August 10, 2023
Session Time: 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM Pacific Time

Authors: Suzanne L. Ishaq1

Affiliations: 1 University of Maine, School of Food and Agriculture, Orono, ME 04469 USA

Atlantic sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) is the second largest fishery in Maine, primarily through wild harvest. Farming is a promising way to meet year-round market demands, create jobs, and reduce ecological impacts of harvest, but relies on wild-caught juveniles as larval survival in hatcheries is low for unknown reasons. My collaborative research group explores the role of larval and tank microbiomes in hatcheries compared to wild scallop veligers. In addition to basic and applied microbiome research, the research team meets with industry partners weekly to discuss results, trends, generate real-world-problem-driven project designs, and collaborate on research, education, and student training.

Bacterial community trends associated with sea scallop, Placopecten magellanicus, larvae in a hatchery system.

Poster ID:  1475974
Poster Title: “Bacterial community trends associated with sea scallop, Placopecten magellanicus, larvae in a hatchery system.”

Session Information

Agriculture
Session Date: Tuesday August 8, 2023 
Session Time: 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM Pacific Time

Authors: Suzanne L. Ishaq1*, Sarah Hosler1, Adwoa Dankwa1, Damian C. Brady2, Erin Grey3, Phoebe Jekielek4, Kyle Pepperman5, Jennifer Perry1, Rachel Lasley-Rasher6, Brian Beal3,7, Timothy J. Bowden1

Affiliations: 1 School of Food & Agriculture, University of Maine, Orono ME 04469. 2 School of Marine Sciences, Darling Marine Center, University of Maine. 3 School of Biology and Ecology, University of Maine, Orono ME 04469. 4 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern Maine, Portland ME 04103. 5 Downeast Institute, Beals, ME 04611. 6  Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of Maine, Orono ME 04473. 7 Division of Environmental & Biological Sciences, University of Maine at Machias, Machias, ME 04654

Atlantic sea scallops, Placopecten magellanicus, are the most economically important marine bivalves along the northeastern coast of North America, and wild-caught adults and juvenile spat are increasingly being cultured in aquaculture facilities and coastal farms. While adults can be induced to spawn successfully in hatcheries, the last two weeks of the larval maturation phase are plagued by large mortality events, making production unfeasible. Research into other scallop- and aquacultured-species point to animal loss from bacterial infections or from altered functionality of host-associated microbiota. There are no previous studies of the bacterial communities from biofilms growing in scallop hatchery tanks, nor even host-microbial studies with this species of sea scallops. We identified bacterial communities in veliger-stage wild larvae, hatchery larvae, and tank biofilms, using the V3-V4 region of the 16S rDNA gene, via Illumina MiSeq sequencing. Hatchery larvae had lower bacterial richness (number of bacteria taxa present) than the wild larvae and tank biofilms, and hatchery larvae had a similar bacterial community (which taxa were present) to both wild larvae and tank biofilms. Bacterial richness was not significantly different between tanks which had been occupied by larvae for 48 hours, and those which had just been drained, scrubbed clean, and refilled with filtered seawater. Static-water-flow compared to continuous-water-flow (flow-through) did not generate different levels of bacterial richness overall, and only an equivocal difference when accounting for time as a smoothing feature in the model (GAM, p = 0.04). Bacterial richness and community similarity between tank samples fluctuated over the trial in repeated patterns of rise and fall, which showed some correlation to lunar cycle  where richness is high when the moon is about 50% and richness is low during new and full moon phases. This may be a proxy for the effects of spring tides and trends in seawater bacteria and phages which are propagated into hatchery tanks. The number of days since the full moon was significantly correlated with bacterial community richness in tanks (GAM, p < 0.01): low during the full moon, peaking ~ 21 days after the full moon, and decreasing again at the next full moon.  These results along with future work, will inform hatcheries on methods that will increase larval survival in these facilities, for example, implementing additional filtering or avoiding seawater collection during spring tides, to reduce certain bacterial taxa of concern or promoting a more diverse microbial community which would compete against pathogens.

Happening today: MSE symposium session showcasing members’ research!

Sue IshaqLeave a comment

The Microbes and Social Equity working group, and The University of Maine Institute of Medicine present 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.

The full program is here.

Session 5: MSE Member Research Showcase

Friday, June 9th, 11 am – 2:30 pm EDT.

Session hosts and organizers: Emily Wissel, Curtis Tilves, Sue Ishaq

Session Scope: MSE members will be sharing their own work in short presentations to showcase the variety of disciplines of our group. 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.

Scheduled Talks

Amber BenezraThe trillions of microbes in and on our bodies are determined by not only biology but also our social connections. Gut Anthro tells the fascinating story of how a sociocultural anthropologist developed a collaborative “anthropology of microbes” with a human microbial ecologist to address global health crises across disciplines. It asks: what would it mean for anthropology to act with science? Based partly at a preeminent U.S. lab studying the human microbiome, the Center for Genome Sciences at Washington University, and partly at a field site in Bangladesh studying infant malnutrition, the book examines how microbes travel between human guts in the “field” and in microbiome laboratories, influencing definitions of health and disease, and how the microbiome can change our views on evolution, agency, and life.
My book Gut Anthro is officially on sale!
Curtis TilvesThis presentation will summarize a work-in-progress for my pilot grant, “Examining the Role of the Gut Microbiome in Racial Disparities in Hypertension”.

Racial disparities in hypertension are believed to be driven by the environment (i.e., non-genetic factors). Identifying modifiable environmental factors that drive racial disparities in hypertension can help lead to interventions to reduce health inequities. The gut microbiome is modifiable and considered a sensor to changing environmental exposures. As with hypertension, racial/ethnic differences in the microbiome have also been documented and are thought to be driven by environment.

Differences in the microbiome and microbial metabolites by race may affect risk of hypertension. Gut microbiome features differ by hypertension status, and microbially-produced metabolites can influence blood pressure through a variety of biological mechanisms. Studies suggest that the associations of microbiome compositions, microbial function, and serum plasma metabolomics with blood pressure may differ by racial/ethnic identities.

This project intends to investigate more deeply the contributors to race differences in the microbiome and hypertension using Black and White participant data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA). Our aims:
Aim 1: Characterize the gut microbiome (diversity, composition, functional potential, and fecal microbial metabolites) of Black (N=220) and White (N=549) participants in BLSA.
Aim 2: Investigate the environmental factors that drive differences in microbiome features and microbial metabolites between Black and White participants in BLSA.
Aim 3: Examine the cross-sectional and longitudinal association of the gut microbiome and fecal microbial metabolites with blood pressure, before and after adjustment for race-associated environmental factors.
Melissa ManusSocial interactions shape the infant microbiome by providing opportunities for caregivers to spread bacteria through physical contact. With most research focused on the impact of maternal-infant contact on the infant gut microbiome, it is unclear how alloparents (i.e. caregivers other than the parents) influence the bacterial communities of infant body sites that are frequently contacted during bouts of caregiving, including the skin. To begin to understand how allocare may influence the diversity of the infant microbiome, detailed questionnaire data on infant-alloparent relationships and specific allocare behaviors were coupled with skin and fecal microbiome samples (4 body sites) from 48 infants living in Chicago, U.S.A. Data from 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing indicated that infant skin and fecal bacterial diversity showed a strong association to having female adult alloparents. Alloparental feeding and co-sleeping displayed stronger associations to infant bacterial diversity compared to playing or holding. There was variation in the magnitude and direction of these relationships across infant body sites. Bacterial relative abundances varied by infant-alloparent relationship and breastfeeding status. This study provides some of the first evidence of an association between allocare and infant bacterial diversity. The results suggest that infants’ exposure to bacteria from the social environment may differ based on infant-alloparent relationships and allocare behaviors. Since the microbiome influences immune system development, variation in allocare that impacts the diversity of infant bacterial communities may be an underexplored dimension of the social determinants of health in early life.

Julian Damashek
This talk will summarize work my laboratory is doing on environmental microbiomes. We primarily study nitrogen cycling and antimicrobial resistance in aquatic ecosystems, particularly in waters impacted by both urban and rural populations. Here I will describe a recent project attempting to use microbial source tracking to determine sources of nutrient inputs throughout a river network (the Mohawk/Teionontatátie), where we are combining quantification of fecal pathogens with detailed measurements of nitrogen compounds. We are particularly interested in determining the sources of urea and ammonium, since these can contribute to the extend or toxicity of harmful algal blooms in many freshwaters. I will also outline a project using metagenomic data to study antibiotic resistance gene abundance and diversity in urban estuary waters.
Ana Zuniga



Bacterial biosensor approaches for fast and cost-effective personal monitoring of potential gut biomarkers.
Gut metabolites are pivotal mediators of host-microbiome interactions. The production of microbiome-derived metabolites can be affected by environmental chemicals, dietary substrate availability, and interindividual variability. Thus, they provide an essential window into human physiology and disease, where socio-environmental aspects also play a key role. However, current methods to monitor gut metabolites rely on heavy and expensive technologies such as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). In that context, robust, fast, field-deployable, and cost-effective strategies for monitoring fecal metabolites would support large-scale functional studies and routine monitoring of metabolite biomarkers associated with environmental exposures. Living cells are an attractive option to engineer biosensors due to their ability to detect and process many environmental signals and their self-replicating nature. Here we optimized a workflow for feces processing that supports metabolite detection using bacterial biosensors. We show that simple centrifugation and filtration steps remove host microbes and support reproducible preparation of a physiological-derived media retaining essential characteristics of human feces, such as matrix effects and endogenous metabolites. We measure the performance of bacterial biosensors for benzoate, lactate, anhydrotetracycline, and bile acids, and find that they are highly sensitive to fecal matrices. However, encapsulating the bacteria in hydrogel helps reduce this inhibitory effect. Finally, by detecting endogenous bile acids, we demonstrate that bacterial biosensors could be used for future metabolite monitoring in feces. This work lays the foundation for the optimization and use of bacterial biosensors in the monitoring of fecal biomarkers for a better characterization of individual environmental exposures.
Erika Diaz Almeyda
Abstract BD
Ramya KumarAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global problem with a heavy toll on patients, healthcare systems, and the economy. In war affected regions, where healthcare systems are already strained by the impacts of war, AMR poses an even bigger threat to the ability to monitor antibiotic use, distribution, and treatment of AMR infections. The occupied Palestinian Territories (oPT) have been under settler colonization for decades, resulting in extensive healthcare fragmentation. We conducted the scoping review using databases PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, and Web of Science. Included articles studied AMR in the oPT.  Preliminary results demonstrate that our search terms identified 1787 articles. Of these, 109 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. Human populations accounted for 83 of the studies, seven were studies on animals, four were studies on water, 12 were studies on knowledge and attitudes regarding AMR and three were studies on AMR in medical tourism. The study of AMR in Palestinian populations provides a lens to study the ecology of human – animal – environment interactions in a OneHealth framework and how war shapes this ecology. The paper will contextualize AMR in a social and political context and reveal deeper layers contributing to the problem including effects of war on behaviors and education of patients and weakening of the healthcare system. Given the lack of literature reporting the relationship between violence and AMR in populations affected by war and settler colonization, this literature review will be the first article synthesizing and critiquing reports of AMR in Palestine. 
Lola HolcombInflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) are chronic conditions characterized by inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract that heavily burden daily life, result in surgery or other complications, and disrupt the gut microbiome. How IBD influences gut microbial ecology, especially biogeographic patterns of microbial location, and how the gut microbiota can use diet components and microbial metabolites to mediate disease, are still poorly understood. Many studies on diet and IBD in mice use a chemically induced ulcerative colitis model, despite the availability of an immune-modulated Crohn’s Disease model. Interleukin-10-knockout (IL-10-ko) mice on a C57BL/6 background, beginning at age 4 or 7 weeks, were fed either a control diet or one containing 10% (w/w) raw broccoli sprouts which was high in the sprout-sourced anti-inflammatory sulforaphane. Diets began 7 days prior to inoculation with Helicobacter hepaticus, which triggers Crohn’s-like symptoms in these immune-impaired mice, and ran for two additional weeks. Key findings of this study suggest that the broccoli sprout diet increases sulforaphane concentration in plasma; decreases weight stagnation, fecal blood, and diarrhea associated with enterocolitis; and increases microbiota richness in the gut, especially in younger mice. Sprout diets resulted in some anatomically specific bacterial communities in younger mice, and reduced the prevalence and abundance of potentially pathogenic or otherwise-commensal bacteria which trigger inflammation in the IL-10 deficient mouse, for example, Escherichia coli and Helicobacter. Overall, the IL-10-ko mouse model is responsive to a raw broccoli sprout diet and represents an opportunity for more diet-host-microbiome research.
Johanna HolmanInflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) are devastating conditions of the gastrointestinal tract with limited treatments, and dietary intervention may be effective, affordable, and safe for managing symptoms. Ongoing research has identified inactive compounds in broccoli sprouts, like glucoraphanin, and that mammalian gut microbiota play a role in metabolizing it to the anti-inflammatory sulforaphane. The objectives were to identify biogeographic location of participating microbiota and correlate that to health outcomes. We fed specific pathogen free C57BL/6 mice either a control diet or a 10% steamed broccoli sprout diet, and gave a three-cycle regimen of 2.5% dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) in drinking water over a 40-day experiment to simulate chronic, relapsing ulcerative colitis. We monitored body weight, fecal characteristics, fecal lipocalin, and sequenced bacterial communities from the contents and mucosa in the jejunum, cecum, and colon. Mice fed the broccoli sprout diet while receiving DSS performed better than mice fed the control diet while receiving DSS for all disease parameters, including significantly more weight gain (2-way ANOVA, p < 0.05), lower Disease Activity Index scores (2-way ANOVA, p < 0.001), and higher bacterial richness in all gut locations (linear regression model, p < 0.01 for all locations measured). Bacterial communities were assorted by gut location except in the mice receiving the control diet and DSS treatment (Beta-diversity, ANOVA, p < 0.05 for each). Importantly, our results suggested that broccoli sprout feeding completely abrogated the effects of DSS on gut microbiota, as bacterial communities were similar between mice receiving broccoli sprouts with and without DSS.
Timothy Hunt, Benjamin Hunt &
Marissa Kinney		A review of an early-life microbe considered missing from the industrialized world that is associated with later-life chronic disease and a related microbe used to treat chronic disease.
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) cause dysfunction of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and can result in hospitalization, suffering and disruption to overall health. Recent work has demonstrated the anti-inflammatory capacity of a broccoli sprout-diet in artificially-induced GI inflammation in pathogen free C57BL/6 mice. Microbiota samples obtained from the GI tract of these mice will be used to study the presence and activity of broccoli glucosinolate hydrolysis to create microbial-sourced bioactives, to further understand the relationship between broccoli-diets and inflammation reduction. It is imperative to validate or replicate qPCR protocols which have been established for glucosinolate metabolism in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (B. theta), in other bacterial species. Additionally, this project will focus on developing new growth curve assays for glucosinolate metabolism, as these methods are lacking in published literature.

Happening today: MSE symposium session on “Elevating human nutrition and microbiome practice”

Sue IshaqLeave a comment

The Microbes and Social Equity working group, and The University of Maine Institute of Medicine present a virtual symposium on:

“Living in a Microbial World”

June 5 – 9th, 2023.

Format: virtual meeting, Zoom platform.

The full program is here.

Session 4: Elevating human nutrition and microbiome practice

Thursday, June 8th, 11 am – 2:30 pm EST. Event has passed, watch the recorded talks.

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, 11~12:00 EDT:

Dr. Babajide Ojo (Jide)

Dr. Babajide Ojo (Jide), PhD. is currently a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Pediatric Gastroenterology department at Stanford University School of Medicine. His PhD research used models of diet-induced obesity to understand how whole foods modulate the gut microbiome to enhance intestinal homeostasis and systemic outcomes. Through his ongoing Postdoctoral training, Jide is working to understand how patient-derived colon organoids may recapitulate the metabolic and epigenetic anomalies in the epithelia of pediatric ulcerative colitis patients. Jide’s long-term research goals seek to understand how nutritional and microbial factors impact the metabolic and regenerative fate of intestinal stem cells.

“Beyond Fiber: Microbial Regulation of Anti-Nutritional Factors in Whole Foods to Benefit Intestinal Physiology”

Dr. Saria Lofton, PhD, RN, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Nursing

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.

Break, ~12:05 – 12:20 EDT

Panel Discussion, 12:20~13:00 EDT:

  • Whole food strategy versus targeted interventions
  • Multi-disciplinary approaches are needed. It’s not just about the gut- we need to think about other organs and systems biology, and with collaboration we can maximize animal use and preliminary data
  • Challenges of working with clinical populations, recruiting, keeping people engaged

Break, 3:00 – 13:15 EDT

Breakout room discussions, 13:15 ~ 14:30 EDT:

  1. Going from animal models to humans
  2. Challenges of clinical study
  3. TBD

Related to this session, here are recorded talks from previous MSE events:

Happening today: MSE symposium session on “Integrating food systems through microbes”

Sue IshaqLeave a comment

The Microbes and Social Equity working group, and The University of Maine Institute of Medicine present a virtual symposium on:

“Living in a Microbial World”

June 5 – 9th, 2023.

Format: virtual meeting, Zoom platform.

The full program is here.

Session 3: Integrating food systems through microbes

Wednesday, June 7th, 11 am – 2:30 pm EST. This event has passed, watch the recorded talks.

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. Note, Sue helped host a little bit but Tiff put in 99.999% of the effort for organizing and running the event.

Speakers, 11~12:00 EDT:

Dr. Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann

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.

Kolawole Banwo

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.

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

Break, ~12:05 – 12:20 EDT

Panel Discussion, 12:20~13:00 EDT:

  • Indigenous sovereignty on traditional fermented foods we want to research
  • Microbiota Vault Initiative
  • Style of agriculture tied to style of governance

Break, 3:00 – 13:15 EDT

Breakout room discussions, 13:15 ~ 14:30 EDT:

  1. Sovereignty on traditional foods research
  2. Food systems, governance, and sustainability
  3. TBD

Related to this session, here are recorded talks from previous MSE events:

Happening today: MSE symposium session on “Microbiomes and climate justice”

Sue IshaqLeave a comment

The Microbes and Social Equity working group, and The University of Maine Institute of Medicine present a virtual symposium on:

“Living in a Microbial World”

June 5 – 9th, 2023.

Format: virtual meeting, Zoom platform.

The full program is here.

Session 2: Microbiomes and climate justice

Tuesday, June 6th, 11 am – 2:30 pm EST. This session has passed, watch the recorded talks.

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, 11~12:00 EDT:

Arpita Bose

Dr. Arpita Bose, PhD., Associate Professor of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis. Her lab studies microbial metabolisms and their influence on biogeochemical cycling using an interdisciplinary approach. We apply the knowledge we gain to generate new ways of addressing issues such as the energy crisis, climate change, pollution, human health, sustainability and the circular economy.

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

Break, ~12:05 – 12:20 EDT

Panel Discussion, 12:20~13:00 EDT:

  • What’s the most pressing issue in your field?
  • Combining microbial ecology with climate models
  • We hear about ‘climate grief’, but what about ‘climate optimism’? What are some success stories?

Break, 3:00 – 13:15 EDT

Breakout room discussions, 13:15 ~ 14:30 EDT:

  1. Marine microbes
  2. Contradiction between research and activism
  3. TBD

Related to this session, here are recorded talks from previous MSE events:

Happening next week: MSE symposium session showcasing members’ research!

Sue IshaqLeave a comment

The Microbes and Social Equity working group, and The University of Maine Institute of Medicine present 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.

The full program is here.

Session 5: MSE Member Research Showcase

Friday, June 9th, 11 am – 2:30 pm EDT.

Session hosts and organizers: Emily Wissel, Curtis Tilves, Sue Ishaq

Session Scope: MSE members will be sharing their own work in short presentations to showcase the variety of disciplines of our group. 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.

Scheduled Talks

Amber BenezraThe trillions of microbes in and on our bodies are determined by not only biology but also our social connections. Gut Anthro tells the fascinating story of how a sociocultural anthropologist developed a collaborative “anthropology of microbes” with a human microbial ecologist to address global health crises across disciplines. It asks: what would it mean for anthropology to act with science? Based partly at a preeminent U.S. lab studying the human microbiome, the Center for Genome Sciences at Washington University, and partly at a field site in Bangladesh studying infant malnutrition, the book examines how microbes travel between human guts in the “field” and in microbiome laboratories, influencing definitions of health and disease, and how the microbiome can change our views on evolution, agency, and life.
My book Gut Anthro is officially on sale!
Curtis TilvesThis presentation will summarize a work-in-progress for my pilot grant, “Examining the Role of the Gut Microbiome in Racial Disparities in Hypertension”.

Racial disparities in hypertension are believed to be driven by the environment (i.e., non-genetic factors). Identifying modifiable environmental factors that drive racial disparities in hypertension can help lead to interventions to reduce health inequities. The gut microbiome is modifiable and considered a sensor to changing environmental exposures. As with hypertension, racial/ethnic differences in the microbiome have also been documented and are thought to be driven by environment.

Differences in the microbiome and microbial metabolites by race may affect risk of hypertension. Gut microbiome features differ by hypertension status, and microbially-produced metabolites can influence blood pressure through a variety of biological mechanisms. Studies suggest that the associations of microbiome compositions, microbial function, and serum plasma metabolomics with blood pressure may differ by racial/ethnic identities.

This project intends to investigate more deeply the contributors to race differences in the microbiome and hypertension using Black and White participant data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA). Our aims:
Aim 1: Characterize the gut microbiome (diversity, composition, functional potential, and fecal microbial metabolites) of Black (N=220) and White (N=549) participants in BLSA.
Aim 2: Investigate the environmental factors that drive differences in microbiome features and microbial metabolites between Black and White participants in BLSA.
Aim 3: Examine the cross-sectional and longitudinal association of the gut microbiome and fecal microbial metabolites with blood pressure, before and after adjustment for race-associated environmental factors.
Melissa ManusSocial interactions shape the infant microbiome by providing opportunities for caregivers to spread bacteria through physical contact. With most research focused on the impact of maternal-infant contact on the infant gut microbiome, it is unclear how alloparents (i.e. caregivers other than the parents) influence the bacterial communities of infant body sites that are frequently contacted during bouts of caregiving, including the skin. To begin to understand how allocare may influence the diversity of the infant microbiome, detailed questionnaire data on infant-alloparent relationships and specific allocare behaviors were coupled with skin and fecal microbiome samples (4 body sites) from 48 infants living in Chicago, U.S.A. Data from 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing indicated that infant skin and fecal bacterial diversity showed a strong association to having female adult alloparents. Alloparental feeding and co-sleeping displayed stronger associations to infant bacterial diversity compared to playing or holding. There was variation in the magnitude and direction of these relationships across infant body sites. Bacterial relative abundances varied by infant-alloparent relationship and breastfeeding status. This study provides some of the first evidence of an association between allocare and infant bacterial diversity. The results suggest that infants’ exposure to bacteria from the social environment may differ based on infant-alloparent relationships and allocare behaviors. Since the microbiome influences immune system development, variation in allocare that impacts the diversity of infant bacterial communities may be an underexplored dimension of the social determinants of health in early life.

Julian Damashek
This talk will summarize work my laboratory is doing on environmental microbiomes. We primarily study nitrogen cycling and antimicrobial resistance in aquatic ecosystems, particularly in waters impacted by both urban and rural populations. Here I will describe a recent project attempting to use microbial source tracking to determine sources of nutrient inputs throughout a river network (the Mohawk/Teionontatátie), where we are combining quantification of fecal pathogens with detailed measurements of nitrogen compounds. We are particularly interested in determining the sources of urea and ammonium, since these can contribute to the extend or toxicity of harmful algal blooms in many freshwaters. I will also outline a project using metagenomic data to study antibiotic resistance gene abundance and diversity in urban estuary waters.
Ana Zuniga



Bacterial biosensor approaches for fast and cost-effective personal monitoring of potential gut biomarkers.
Gut metabolites are pivotal mediators of host-microbiome interactions. The production of microbiome-derived metabolites can be affected by environmental chemicals, dietary substrate availability, and interindividual variability. Thus, they provide an essential window into human physiology and disease, where socio-environmental aspects also play a key role. However, current methods to monitor gut metabolites rely on heavy and expensive technologies such as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). In that context, robust, fast, field-deployable, and cost-effective strategies for monitoring fecal metabolites would support large-scale functional studies and routine monitoring of metabolite biomarkers associated with environmental exposures. Living cells are an attractive option to engineer biosensors due to their ability to detect and process many environmental signals and their self-replicating nature. Here we optimized a workflow for feces processing that supports metabolite detection using bacterial biosensors. We show that simple centrifugation and filtration steps remove host microbes and support reproducible preparation of a physiological-derived media retaining essential characteristics of human feces, such as matrix effects and endogenous metabolites. We measure the performance of bacterial biosensors for benzoate, lactate, anhydrotetracycline, and bile acids, and find that they are highly sensitive to fecal matrices. However, encapsulating the bacteria in hydrogel helps reduce this inhibitory effect. Finally, by detecting endogenous bile acids, we demonstrate that bacterial biosensors could be used for future metabolite monitoring in feces. This work lays the foundation for the optimization and use of bacterial biosensors in the monitoring of fecal biomarkers for a better characterization of individual environmental exposures.
Erika Diaz Almeyda
Abstract BD
Ramya KumarAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global problem with a heavy toll on patients, healthcare systems, and the economy. In war affected regions, where healthcare systems are already strained by the impacts of war, AMR poses an even bigger threat to the ability to monitor antibiotic use, distribution, and treatment of AMR infections. The occupied Palestinian Territories (oPT) have been under settler colonization for decades, resulting in extensive healthcare fragmentation. We conducted the scoping review using databases PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, and Web of Science. Included articles studied AMR in the oPT.  Preliminary results demonstrate that our search terms identified 1787 articles. Of these, 109 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. Human populations accounted for 83 of the studies, seven were studies on animals, four were studies on water, 12 were studies on knowledge and attitudes regarding AMR and three were studies on AMR in medical tourism. The study of AMR in Palestinian populations provides a lens to study the ecology of human – animal – environment interactions in a OneHealth framework and how war shapes this ecology. The paper will contextualize AMR in a social and political context and reveal deeper layers contributing to the problem including effects of war on behaviors and education of patients and weakening of the healthcare system. Given the lack of literature reporting the relationship between violence and AMR in populations affected by war and settler colonization, this literature review will be the first article synthesizing and critiquing reports of AMR in Palestine. 
Lola HolcombInflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) are chronic conditions characterized by inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract that heavily burden daily life, result in surgery or other complications, and disrupt the gut microbiome. How IBD influences gut microbial ecology, especially biogeographic patterns of microbial location, and how the gut microbiota can use diet components and microbial metabolites to mediate disease, are still poorly understood. Many studies on diet and IBD in mice use a chemically induced ulcerative colitis model, despite the availability of an immune-modulated Crohn’s Disease model. Interleukin-10-knockout (IL-10-ko) mice on a C57BL/6 background, beginning at age 4 or 7 weeks, were fed either a control diet or one containing 10% (w/w) raw broccoli sprouts which was high in the sprout-sourced anti-inflammatory sulforaphane. Diets began 7 days prior to inoculation with Helicobacter hepaticus, which triggers Crohn’s-like symptoms in these immune-impaired mice, and ran for two additional weeks. Key findings of this study suggest that the broccoli sprout diet increases sulforaphane concentration in plasma; decreases weight stagnation, fecal blood, and diarrhea associated with enterocolitis; and increases microbiota richness in the gut, especially in younger mice. Sprout diets resulted in some anatomically specific bacterial communities in younger mice, and reduced the prevalence and abundance of potentially pathogenic or otherwise-commensal bacteria which trigger inflammation in the IL-10 deficient mouse, for example, Escherichia coli and Helicobacter. Overall, the IL-10-ko mouse model is responsive to a raw broccoli sprout diet and represents an opportunity for more diet-host-microbiome research.
Johanna HolmanInflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) are devastating conditions of the gastrointestinal tract with limited treatments, and dietary intervention may be effective, affordable, and safe for managing symptoms. Ongoing research has identified inactive compounds in broccoli sprouts, like glucoraphanin, and that mammalian gut microbiota play a role in metabolizing it to the anti-inflammatory sulforaphane. The objectives were to identify biogeographic location of participating microbiota and correlate that to health outcomes. We fed specific pathogen free C57BL/6 mice either a control diet or a 10% steamed broccoli sprout diet, and gave a three-cycle regimen of 2.5% dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) in drinking water over a 40-day experiment to simulate chronic, relapsing ulcerative colitis. We monitored body weight, fecal characteristics, fecal lipocalin, and sequenced bacterial communities from the contents and mucosa in the jejunum, cecum, and colon. Mice fed the broccoli sprout diet while receiving DSS performed better than mice fed the control diet while receiving DSS for all disease parameters, including significantly more weight gain (2-way ANOVA, p < 0.05), lower Disease Activity Index scores (2-way ANOVA, p < 0.001), and higher bacterial richness in all gut locations (linear regression model, p < 0.01 for all locations measured). Bacterial communities were assorted by gut location except in the mice receiving the control diet and DSS treatment (Beta-diversity, ANOVA, p < 0.05 for each). Importantly, our results suggested that broccoli sprout feeding completely abrogated the effects of DSS on gut microbiota, as bacterial communities were similar between mice receiving broccoli sprouts with and without DSS.
Timothy Hunt, Benjamin Hunt &
Marissa Kinney		A review of an early-life microbe considered missing from the industrialized world that is associated with later-life chronic disease and a related microbe used to treat chronic disease.
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) cause dysfunction of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and can result in hospitalization, suffering and disruption to overall health. Recent work has demonstrated the anti-inflammatory capacity of a broccoli sprout-diet in artificially-induced GI inflammation in pathogen free C57BL/6 mice. Microbiota samples obtained from the GI tract of these mice will be used to study the presence and activity of broccoli glucosinolate hydrolysis to create microbial-sourced bioactives, to further understand the relationship between broccoli-diets and inflammation reduction. It is imperative to validate or replicate qPCR protocols which have been established for glucosinolate metabolism in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (B. theta), in other bacterial species. Additionally, this project will focus on developing new growth curve assays for glucosinolate metabolism, as these methods are lacking in published literature.

Next week: MSE symposium session on “Elevating human nutrition and microbiome practice”

Sue IshaqLeave a comment

The Microbes and Social Equity working group, and The University of Maine Institute of Medicine present a virtual symposium on:

“Living in a Microbial World”

June 5 – 9th, 2023.

Format: virtual meeting, Zoom platform.

The full program is here.

Session 4: Elevating human nutrition and microbiome practice

Thursday, June 8th, 11 am – 2:30 pm EST. Event has passed, watch the recorded talks.

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, 11~12:00 EDT:

Dr. Babajide Ojo (Jide)

Dr. Babajide Ojo (Jide), PhD. is currently a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Pediatric Gastroenterology department at Stanford University School of Medicine. His PhD research used models of diet-induced obesity to understand how whole foods modulate the gut microbiome to enhance intestinal homeostasis and systemic outcomes. Through his ongoing Postdoctoral training, Jide is working to understand how patient-derived colon organoids may recapitulate the metabolic and epigenetic anomalies in the epithelia of pediatric ulcerative colitis patients. Jide’s long-term research goals seek to understand how nutritional and microbial factors impact the metabolic and regenerative fate of intestinal stem cells.

“Beyond Fiber: Microbial Regulation of Anti-Nutritional Factors in Whole Foods to Benefit Intestinal Physiology”

Dr. Saria Lofton, PhD, RN, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Nursing

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.

Break, ~12:05 – 12:20 EDT

Panel Discussion, 12:20~13:00 EDT:

  • Whole food strategy versus targeted interventions
  • Multi-disciplinary approaches are needed. It’s not just about the gut- we need to think about other organs and systems biology, and with collaboration we can maximize animal use and preliminary data
  • Challenges of working with clinical populations, recruiting, keeping people engaged

Break, 3:00 – 13:15 EDT

Breakout room discussions, 13:15 ~ 14:30 EDT:

  1. Going from animal models to humans
  2. Challenges of clinical study
  3. TBD

Related to this session, here are recorded talks from previous MSE events:

Next week: MSE symposium session on “Integrating food systems through microbes”

Sue IshaqLeave a comment

The Microbes and Social Equity working group, and The University of Maine Institute of Medicine present a virtual symposium on:

“Living in a Microbial World”

June 5 – 9th, 2023.

Format: virtual meeting, Zoom platform.

The full program is here.

Session 3: Integrating food systems through microbes

Wednesday, June 7th, 11 am – 2:30 pm EST. This event has passed, watch the recorded talks.

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. Note, Sue helped host a little bit, but Tiff put in 99.999% of the effort for organizing and running the session.

Speakers, 11~12:00 EDT:

Dr. Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann

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.

Kolawole Banwo

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.

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

Break, ~12:05 – 12:20 EDT

Panel Discussion, 12:20~13:00 EDT:

  • Indigenous sovereignty on traditional fermented foods we want to research
  • Microbiota Vault Initiative
  • Style of agriculture tied to style of governance

Break, 3:00 – 13:15 EDT

Breakout room discussions, 13:15 ~ 14:30 EDT:

  1. Sovereignty on traditional foods research
  2. Food systems, governance, and sustainability
  3. TBD

Related to this session, here are recorded talks from previous MSE events:

Happening next week: MSE symposium session on “Microbiomes and climate justice”

Sue IshaqLeave a comment

The Microbes and Social Equity working group, and The University of Maine Institute of Medicine present a virtual symposium on:

“Living in a Microbial World”

June 5 – 9th, 2023.

Format: virtual meeting, Zoom platform.

The full program is here.

Session 2: Microbiomes and climate justice

Tuesday, June 6th, 11 am – 2:30 pm EST. This session has passed, watch the recorded talks.

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, 11~12:00 EDT:

Arpita Bose

Dr. Arpita Bose, PhD., Associate Professor of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis. Her lab studies microbial metabolisms and their influence on biogeochemical cycling using an interdisciplinary approach. We apply the knowledge we gain to generate new ways of addressing issues such as the energy crisis, climate change, pollution, human health, sustainability and the circular economy.

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

Break, ~12:05 – 12:20 EDT

Panel Discussion, 12:20~13:00 EDT:

  • What’s the most pressing issue in your field?
  • Combining microbial ecology with climate models
  • We hear about ‘climate grief’, but what about ‘climate optimism’? What are some success stories?

Break, 3:00 – 13:15 EDT

Breakout room discussions, 13:15 ~ 14:30 EDT:

  1. Marine microbes
  2. Contradiction between research and activism
  3. TBD

Related to this session, here are recorded talks from previous MSE events: