Tag: microbes and social equity

The IUCN Microbe Specialist Group published our prospective goals for the conservation of microbes to support planetary health.

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The new IUCN Microbe Specialist Group, led by Drs. Jack Gilbert and Raquel Peixoto, has published a prospectus which outlines our goals and activities for the next few years, as well as steps for recruiting research and policy expertise!

Gilbert, J., Scholz, A., Dominguez-Bello, M.G., Korsten, L., Berg, G., Singh, B., Boetius, A., Wang, F., Greening, C., Wrighton, K., Bordenstein, S., Jansson, J., Lennon, J., Souza, V., Allard, S.M., Thomas, T., Cowan, D., Crowther, T., Nguyen, N., Harper, L., Haraoui, L-P., Ishaq, S., McFall-Ngai, M., Redford, K.H., Peixoto, R. 2025. Safeguarding Microbial Biodiversity: Microbial Conservation Specialist Group (MCSG) within the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Editorial Published in multiple journals simultaneously, including mSystems, Sustainable Microbiology, the ISME Journal, and FEMS Microbial Ecology.

The IUCN Microbe group is led by Drs. Jack Gilbert and Raquel Peixoto, who are internationally famous for their research into environmental microbiomes as well as their contributions to conservation. The group recently announced its formation in an editorial:

Gilbert, J., Peioto, R., Scholz, A., Dominguez-Bello, M.G., Korsten, L., Berg, G., Singh, B., Boetius, A., Wang, F., Greening, C., Wrighton, K., Bordenstein, S., Jansson, J., Lennon, J., Souza, V., Thomas, T., Cowan, D., Crowther, T., Nguyen, N., Harper, L., Haraoui, L-P., Ishaq, S., Redford, K. 2025. Launching the IUCN Microbial Conservation Specialist Group as a global safeguard for microbial biodiversity. Nature Microbiology 10:2359–2360. (correspondence)

Now that the Microbe Group has been assembled and set our goals, we will begin setting up international working groups for implementing conservation, and opening the group for global supporting membership.

Back in May, I had the honor of attending a three-day workshop on “Conservation in a Microbial World“, which gathered researchers, innovators, and policy makers to discuss the concept, need, logistics, and possibility of formally making microorganisms part of the considerations of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global organization which coordinates the protection of species and ecosystems. The meeting was to provide guidance to the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) on microbial ecology, ecosystems which are at risk or already losing micobial diversity because of degradation and human activities, as well as strategies to bring attention to the need to consider microbes in the health of organisms and ecosystems.

Attendees of the 2025 Conservation in a Microbial World meeting, Scripps, La Jolla.
A composite photo of the members of the Board of Directors for MSE as of 2025.

Microbes and Social Equity Working Group named as team winner of Dorothy Jones Diversity & Inclusion Achievement Award!!

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I’m thrilled and humbled to announce that the Microbes and Social Equity Working Group (MSE) has been named as the team winner of the Dorothy Jones Diversity & Inclusion Achievement Award from Applied Microbiology International (AMI), the oldest microbiology society in the UK!!!

Here’s the AMI press release!

The prize is part of the Applied Microbiology International Horizon Awards 2025, which celebrate the brightest minds in the field and promote the research, group, projects, products and individuals who continue to help shape the future of applied microbiology. The Dorothy Jones Diversity and Inclusion Achievement Award honours Dorothy Jones’ commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion within STEM. This award acknowledges individuals or organisations that have made significant strides in these areas. It celebrates initiatives that dismantle barriers to participation and representation, especially for underrepresented groups, and recognises inclusive research and experimental design and practice. 

Applied Microbiology International

MSE seminar today, “Healthy Soils: Our Hope for a Warming World”

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The MSE logo is a scale for comparing weights of two things, with microbes being weighed on both sides.

Events will be hosted January – December, 2025, usually on the last Wednesday of every month, 12:00 – 14:00 pm ET. Presented over Zoom.

After each talk, we will continue the discussions in an informal social meeting with MSE. All speakers and members of the audience are welcome to join the social meeting.

Hosted by: Sue Ishaq, MSE, and finacially supported by the University of Maine Institute of Medicine and the UMaine Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Committee.

Registration is required but free. Click here to register!

Summary: 

Microorganisms are critical to many aspects of biological life, including human health.  The human body is a veritable universe for microorganisms: some pass through but once, some are frequent tourists, and some spend their entire existence in the confines of our body tissues.  The collective microbial community, our microbiome, can be impacted by the details of our lifestyle, including diet, hygiene, health status, and more, but many are driven by social, economic, medical, or political constraints that restrict available choices that may impact our health.   Access to resources is the basis for creating and resolving social equity—access to healthcare, healthy foods, a suitable living environment, and to beneficial microorganisms, but also access to personal and occupational protection to avoid exposure to infectious disease. This speaker series explores the way that microbes connect public policy, social disparities, and human health, as well as the ongoing research, education, policy, and innovation in this field. 

You can find recordings from previous series here.

“Healthy Soils: Our Hope for a Warming World”

Dr. Kristen DeAngelis, PhD

Sept 24, 2025 12:00 EDT. This event has passed, watch the recording here.

Headshot of Dr. Kristen DeAngelis, PhD.

Kristen got her PhD in Microbiology from the University of California Berkeley, and was trained in microbial ecology and environmental microbiology as a postdoc at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and at the Joint BioEnergy Institute. Born in Massachusetts, she has worked at UMass Amherst since 2011, where she is the lead of the Molecular Microbial Ecology Lab in the department of Microbiology. In the past 5 years alone, she became an Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, she’s been awarded Distinguished Lecturer from the American Society for Microbiology and UMass, she received the Chancellor’s Medal from UMass, and she was the Harvard Forest Bullard Fellow.

Kristen loves teaching (and learning) bioinformatics and computer programming, crosswords, drawing, and hiking western Mass with her two kids and crazy dog Suki. Her lab website is here.

Kristen was one of the earliest members of MSE, contributing to a science communications piece and the paper which introduced MSE to the world!

“City compost programs turn garbage into ‘black gold’ that boosts food security and social justice.” Kristen DeAngelis, Gwynne Mhuireach, Sue Ishaq, The Conversation. June 11, 2020

Ishaq, S.L., Parada, F.J., Wolf, P.G., Bonilla, C.Y., Carney, M.A., Benezra, A., Wissel, E., Friedman, M., DeAngelis, K.M., Robinson, J.M., Fahimipour, A.K., Manus, M.B., Grieneisen, L., Dietz, L.G., Pathak, A., Chauhan, A., Kuthyar, S., Stewart, J.D., Dasari, M.R., Nonnamaker, E., Choudoir, M., Horve, P.F., Zimmerman, N.B., Kozik, A.J., Darling, K.W., Romero-Olivares, A.L., Hariharan, J., Farmer, N., Maki, K.A., Collier, J.L., O’Doherty, K., Letourneau, J., Kline, J., Moses, P.L., Morar, N. 2021.  Introducing the Microbes and Social Equity Working Group: Considering the Microbial Components of Social, Environmental, and Health Justice. mSystems 6:4. Special Series: Social Equity as a Means of Resolving Disparities in Microbial Exposure

Logo designed by Alex Guillen

Article published on the use (and mis-use) of human population descriptors as biological determinants of human microbiomes!

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Since the summer of 2023, I have been part of an interdisciplinary team that examines the way microbiome researchers use social and population descriptors for people in their analysis. In many cases, only basic information about a person is available in large datasets that are publicly available to use, or detailed information about a person is difficult to obtain during a study, thus many researchers rely on “proxy terms” to try and understand how human microbiomes are assembled and changed. Proxy terms are broad categories that group people, such as geographic area or race, but often these are too broad to be used for any meaningful analysis, especially when working with biological data.

‘Race’ is a relatively new concept used to describe social groups, and as discussed brilliantly in the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s report on “Use of Race, Ethnicity, and Ancestry as Population Descriptors in Genomics Research“, it has been mis-used for several hundred years to insinuate basic biological differences between people. This was done intentionally to justify discrimination all the way up to slavery, but it has been unintentionally propagated into research through the use of race as a proxy term to represent someone’s lifestyle. In recent decades, microbiome research has been trying to understand how human lives affect the microbiomes they accumulate, and similarly has sometimes incorrectly espoused the idea that vague social categories manifest as biological differences.

Our group delved in the history of race in biological science, case studies where results that implicate race led to discriminatory policy and practice, and give guidelines for selecting more specific factors to understand the social and environmental impacts on the microbiome.

I’m pleased to announce that we just had our review published in mSystems: ” Prioritizing Precision: Guidelines for the Better Use of Population Descriptors in Human Microbiome Research.” We presented this work at the 2024 Microbes and Social Equity speaker series, too, and the recording can be found here. It builds off of our collective work over the past decade.

Nicole M. Farmer, M.D.,

Amber Benezra, PhD.,

Katherine Maki, PhD.,

Sue Ishaq, photo courtesy of Patrick Wine, 2021.

Sue Ishaq, PhD.,

Ariangela Kozik

Ariangela Kozik, PhD.,

“ Prioritizing Precision: Guidelines for the Better Use of Population Descriptors in Human Microbiome Research.“

Authors:  Nicole M. Farmer1,2, Amber Benezra1,3, Katherine A. Maki1, Suzanne L. Ishaq1,2, Ariangela J. Kozik1,2,4,5* 

Affiliations:

1 The Microbes and Social Equity working group, Orono, Maine, USA; 2 Nova Institute for Health, Baltimore, MD; 3 Science and Technology Studies, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA; 4 Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA; 5 Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Abstract

Microbiome science is a celebration of the connections between humans, our environment, and microbial organisms. We are continually learning more about our microbial fingerprint, how each microbiome may respond to identical stimuli differently, and how the quality of the environmental conditions around us influences the microorganisms we encounter and acquire. However, in this process of self-discovery, we have utilized socially constructed ideas about ourselves as biological factors, potentially obscuring the true nature of our relationships to each other, microbes, and the planet. The concept of race, which has continuously changing definitions over hundreds of years, is frequently operationalized as a proxy for biological variation and suggested to have a real impact on the microbiome. Scientists across disciplines and through decades of research have misused race as a biological determinant, resulting in falsely scientific justifications for social and political discrimination. However, concepts of race and ethnicity are highly nuanced, inconsistent, and culturally specific. Without training, microbiome researchers risk continuing to misconstrue these concepts as fixed biological factors that have direct impacts on our microbiomes and/or health. In 2023, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released recommendations on the use of population descriptors such as race and ethnicity in genetic science. In this paper, we posit similar recommendations that can and must be translated into microbiome science to avoid re-biologizing race and that push us toward the goal of understanding the microbiome as an engine of adaptation to help us thrive in a dynamic world.

MSE seminar next week, “Healthy Soils: Our Hope for a Warming World”

sueishaqlabLeave a comment
The MSE logo is a scale for comparing weights of two things, with microbes being weighed on both sides.

Events will be hosted January – December, 2025, usually on the last Wednesday of every month, 12:00 – 14:00 pm ET. Presented over Zoom.

After each talk, we will continue the discussions in an informal social meeting with MSE. All speakers and members of the audience are welcome to join the social meeting.

Hosted by: Sue Ishaq, MSE, and finacially supported by the University of Maine Institute of Medicine and the UMaine Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Committee.

Registration is required but free. Click here to register!

Summary: 

Microorganisms are critical to many aspects of biological life, including human health.  The human body is a veritable universe for microorganisms: some pass through but once, some are frequent tourists, and some spend their entire existence in the confines of our body tissues.  The collective microbial community, our microbiome, can be impacted by the details of our lifestyle, including diet, hygiene, health status, and more, but many are driven by social, economic, medical, or political constraints that restrict available choices that may impact our health.   Access to resources is the basis for creating and resolving social equity—access to healthcare, healthy foods, a suitable living environment, and to beneficial microorganisms, but also access to personal and occupational protection to avoid exposure to infectious disease. This speaker series explores the way that microbes connect public policy, social disparities, and human health, as well as the ongoing research, education, policy, and innovation in this field. 

You can find recordings from previous series here.

“Healthy Soils: Our Hope for a Warming World”

Dr. Kristen DeAngelis, PhD

Sept 24, 2025 12:00 EDT. This event has passed, watch the recording here.

Headshot of Dr. Kristen DeAngelis, PhD.

Kristen got her PhD in Microbiology from the University of California Berkeley, and was trained in microbial ecology and environmental microbiology as a postdoc at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and at the Joint BioEnergy Institute. Born in Massachusetts, she has worked at UMass Amherst since 2011, where she is the lead of the Molecular Microbial Ecology Lab in the department of Microbiology. In the past 5 years alone, she became an Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, she’s been awarded Distinguished Lecturer from the American Society for Microbiology and UMass, she received the Chancellor’s Medal from UMass, and she was the Harvard Forest Bullard Fellow.

Kristen loves teaching (and learning) bioinformatics and computer programming, crosswords, drawing, and hiking western Mass with her two kids and crazy dog Suki. Her lab website is here.

Kristen was one of the earliest members of MSE, contributing to a science communications piece and the paper which introduced MSE to the world!

“City compost programs turn garbage into ‘black gold’ that boosts food security and social justice.” Kristen DeAngelis, Gwynne Mhuireach, Sue Ishaq, The Conversation. June 11, 2020

Ishaq, S.L., Parada, F.J., Wolf, P.G., Bonilla, C.Y., Carney, M.A., Benezra, A., Wissel, E., Friedman, M., DeAngelis, K.M., Robinson, J.M., Fahimipour, A.K., Manus, M.B., Grieneisen, L., Dietz, L.G., Pathak, A., Chauhan, A., Kuthyar, S., Stewart, J.D., Dasari, M.R., Nonnamaker, E., Choudoir, M., Horve, P.F., Zimmerman, N.B., Kozik, A.J., Darling, K.W., Romero-Olivares, A.L., Hariharan, J., Farmer, N., Maki, K.A., Collier, J.L., O’Doherty, K., Letourneau, J., Kline, J., Moses, P.L., Morar, N. 2021.  Introducing the Microbes and Social Equity Working Group: Considering the Microbial Components of Social, Environmental, and Health Justice. mSystems 6:4. Special Series: Social Equity as a Means of Resolving Disparities in Microbial Exposure

Logo designed by Alex Guillen

“Launching the IUCN Microbial Conservation Specialist Group as a global safeguard for microbial biodiversity”- paper published and group assembled!

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I’m delighted to announce the publication of “Launching the IUCN Microbial Conservation Specialist Group as a global safeguard for microbial biodiversity” — a short publication in Nature, written by the new IUCN Microbe Group, of which I am a part! The paper introduces the need for a Specialist Group focused on microorganisms, microbial communities, and the connection between microbes and health of environments and all other organisms.

The new IUCN Microbe group is being led by Drs. Jack Gilbert and Raquel Peixoto, who are internationally famous for their research into environmental microbiomes as well as their contributions to conservation. Now that the Microbe Group has been assembled, we have been working on creating a prospectus for the group which outlines our goals and activities for the next few years, as well as steps for recruiting research and policy expertise, as needed, setting up international working groups for implementing conservation, and opening the group for global supporting membership.

Gilbert, J., Scholz, A., Dominguez-Bello, M.G., Korsten, L., Berg, G., Singh, B., Boetius, A., Wang, F., Greening, C., Wrighton, K., Bordenstein, S., Jansson, J., Lennon, J., Souza, V., Thomas, T., Cowan, D., Crowther, T., Nguyen, N., Harper, L., Haraoui, L-P., Ishaq, S., Redford, K. 2025. “Launching the IUCN Microbial Conservation Specialist Group as a global safeguard for microbial biodiversity” Nature

Back in May, I had the honor of attending a three-day workshop on “Conservation in a Microbial World“, which gathered researchers, innovators, and policy makers to discuss the concept, need, logistics, and possibility of formally making microorganisms part of the considerations of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global organization which coordinates the protection of species and ecosystems. The meeting was to provide guidance to the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) on microbial ecology, ecosystems which are at risk or already losing micobial diversity because of degradation and human activities, as well as strategies to bring attention to the need to consider microbes in the health of organisms and ecosystems.

Attendees of the 2025 Conservation in a Microbial World meeting, Scripps, La Jolla.

Conservation in a Microbial World meeting

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Two weeks ago, I had the honor of attending a three-day workshop on “Conservation in a Microbial World“, which gathered researchers, innovators, and policy makers to discuss the concept, need, logistics, and possibility of formally making microorganisms part of the considerations of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global organization which coordinates the protection of species and ecosystems. The meeting was to provide guidance to the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) on microbial ecology, ecosystems which are at risk or already losing micobial diversity because of degradation and human activities, as well as strategies to bring attention to the need to consider microbes in the health of organisms and ecosystems. It was wonderful to reconnect with old friends and make new ones!

Attendees of the 2025 Conservation in a Microbial World meeting, Scripps, La Jolla.

Commentary published on Microbiome Stewardship!

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Our collaborative team of researchers (bioethicists (Kieran and Diego), bioinformaticians (Rob), host microbial ecologists (Sue and Emma), and soil microbial ecologists (Mallory), had our first co-authored paper published in mSystems! Our paper is a commentary on the concept and need for microbiome stewardship, and outlines the research and policy priorities that are the focus of our ongoing research.

Microbiome stewardship is the broad idea that when we think about the relevance of healthy microbiomes for public health, we need to consider ecosystem-level factors such, as environmental pollutants, built environments, industrial food processing that affect interactions between microbes and human health. Microbiomes are highly dynamic and complex systems, composed of  bacteria, archaea, protozoa, fungi, and viruses; and our personal microbiomes are derived from larger shared, collective microbial resources.

Microbiome scientists are increasingly demonstrating the importance of microbial ecologies for human and environmental health. In spite of this, no protections are in place to ensure the health of microbiomes. In other words, there are no policies protecting microbiomes, which in turn are foundational to the health of all environmental and host ecosystems.  We built our research team to develop a framework and definition for microbiome stewardship, guiding principles for its implementation, and tools for assessment. Last year, we were awarded funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) for a four-year project investigating how our collective microbiomes (the diverse microbes we share between humans and our environments) impact health! 
The publication of this commentary also sets the stage for a Summit on Pathways to Microbiome Stewardship which the research team is organizing for July 7-10, 2025.

Commentary

Choudoir, M., Ishaq, S., Beiko, R., Silva, D., Allen-Vercoe, E., O’Doherty, K. 2025. The case for microbiome stewardship: What it is and how to get there. mSystems. 0:e00062-25.  https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.00062-25

Abstract:
Microbiomes are essential for human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health. Despite widespread recognition of the importance of microbiomes, there is little attention paid to monitoring and safeguarding microbial ecologies on policy levels. We observe that microbiomes are deteriorating owing to practices at societal levels such as pesticide use in agriculture, air and water pollution, and overuse of antibiotics. Potential policy on these issues would cross multiple domains such as public health, environmental protection, and agriculture. We propose microbiome stewardship as a foundational concept that can act across policy domains to facilitate healthy microbiomes for human and ecosystem health. We examine challenges to be addressed and steps to take toward developing meaningful microbiome stewardship.

Figure 1. Microbiome stewardship as a concept and framework for ensuring human and planetary health supported by microbial functions. Human microbiomes are constituted from our environment, which has determinants based largely on societal systems (e.g., agriculture and food systems, built environment, health care accessibility) that operate beyond individual choice and behavioral interventions. Figure created with BioRender.com.

Acknowledgments: We thank Lola Holcomb for their helpful feedback and organizational contributions to this manuscript.

Funding:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch Project Accession 7004439 (MJC)
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture through the Maine Agricultural & Forest Experiment Station: Hatch Project ME022329 (SLI)
National Institute of Health (NIH/NIDDK 1R15DK133826-01) (SLI)
Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (RGB)
Canada Research Chairs program (EA-V)
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Funding Reference Number: 191753) (KCO)
University of Guelph Institute for Environmental Research (KCO)

Meet the Team

A headshot of Dr. Kieran O'Doherty, PhD who is wearing a black pinstripe shirt and standing outside in front of a yellow brick wall.

Dr. Kieran C. O’Doherty, PhD., is professor in the department of psychology at the University of Guelph, where he directs the Discourse, Science, Publics research Group. His research focuses on the social and ethical implications of science and technology and public engagement on science and technology. He has published on such topics as data governance, vaccines, human tissue biobanks, the human microbiome, salmon genomics, and genetic testing. A particular emphasis of his research is on theory and methods of public deliberation, in which members of the public are involved in collectively developing recommendations for the governance of science & technology. Recent edited volumes include Psychological Studies of Science and Technology (2019) and The Sage Handbook of Applied Social Psychology (2019). He is editor of Theory & Psychology.

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 Technologies, Inc., a developer of environmental DNA sampling devices.

A headshot of Dr. Sue Ishaq, PhD in which she is wearing a black and white houndstooth pattern waistcoat and a white button up shirt. Graphics have been added to show a strand of DNA and the words "love your microbes"

Dr. Sue Ishaq, PhD., is an Associate Professor of Microbiomes, University of Maine; and founded MSE in 2020.  Over the years, her research has gone from wild animal gut microbiomes, to soils, to buildings, and back to the gut. Since 2019, her lab in Maine focuses on host-associated microbial communities in animals and humans, and in particular, how host and microbes interact in the gut and can be harnessed to reduce inflammation. She is also the early-career At Large member of the Board of Directors for the American Society for Microbiology, 2024- 2027. 

Dr. Emma AllenVercoe, PhD, is a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Guelph, and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Human Gut Microbiome Function and Host Interactions. Her research portfolio is broad, encompassing host-pathogen interplay, live microbial products as therapeutic agents, gut microbiome and anaerobic culture (humans and animals), and the study of ‘missing gut microbes’ i.e. those that are present in hunter-gatherer societies but missing in the industrialized world.  She has developed the Robogut – a culture system that allows for the growth of gut microbial communities in vitro, and is currently busy a centre for microbiome culture and preservation at the University of Guelph.

Dr. Mallory Choudoir, PhD wearing a button up bro

Dr. Mallory Choudoir, PhD, is an Assistant Professor & Soil Microbiome Extension Specialist in the Department of Plant & Microbial Biology at North Carolina State University. The goal of her applied research and extension program is to translate microbiome science to sustainable agriculture. She aims to develop microbial-centered solutions for optimizing crop productivity, reducing agronomic inputs, and enhancing  agroecosystem resilience to climate change.

Diego Silva, PhD wearing a blue shirt and eye glasses and standing in from of a red brick wall.

Diego Silva, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Bioethics at Sydney Health Ethics and the University of Sydney School of Public Health. His research centers on public health ethics, particularly the application of political theory in the context of infectious diseases and health security, e.g., tuberculosis, COVID-19, antimicrobial resistance, etc. He is currently the outgoing Chair and a member of the Public Health Ethics Consultative Group at the Public Health Agency of Canada and works with the World Health Organization on various public health ethics topics on an ad hoc basis.

Registration is open for the 2025 MSE Summit: Pathways to Microbiome Stewardship!!

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2025 MSE Summit: Pathways to Microbiome Stewardship

Summary of the event: Microbiome stewardship is the broad idea that we need to consider ecosystem-level factors when we think about public health, as our environment, behaviors, and public policy affects interactions between microbes and human health.  Our ability to develop practices and advocate for policy reform that address societal inequities is limited without a strong microbiome stewardship framework. Led by MSE and the Microbiome Stewardship working group, attendees of the webinars will learn how other researchers engage with microbiome or health stewardship. Participants of the workshops will plan a pathway to bring their own work in line with principles of conservation and stewardship, or design future research to provide tangible and meaningful stewardship endpoints relevant to their area of focus.

Registration is open!

Webinar Session 1: Focus on Host Microbiomes

Format: Webinar presentations of research. Online only — the removal of US federal funding leaves us unable to host this in person.

Cost: Free

Date: Monday July 7, 2025; 12:00 ~ 5:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

TimeAgenda
12:00 ~ 12:15 PMWelcome and Intro to the Summit
Sue Ishaq, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Maine; Founder and Lead, MSE
12:15 ~ 1:00 PM The Concept of Microbiome Stewardship
Kieran O’Doherty, PhD, Professor, University of Guelph; MSE
1:00 ~ 1:45 PM Indigenous perspectives on microbiome stewardship and public health. 
Nicole Redvers, DPhil, ND, MPH, Associate Professor, Western Research Chair & Director, Indigenous Planetary Health; Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Schulich Interfaculty Program in Public Health, University of Western Ontario

Dr. Nicole Redvers, DPhil, ND, MPH, is a member of the Deninu K’ue First Nation (Canada) and has worked with Indigenous patients, scholars, and communities around the globe her entire career. She is an Associate Professor, Western Research Chair, and Director of Indigenous Planetary Health at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University. Dr. Redvers also currently serves as the Vice President Research at the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC). She has been actively involved at regional, national, and international levels promoting the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives in both human and planetary health research and practice. Dr. Redvers is the author of the trade paperback book titled, ‘The Science of the Sacred: Bridging Global Indigenous Medicine Systems and Modern Scientific Principles’.
1:45 ~ 2:30 PMCase study in racism in vaginal microbiome work as studies use small group sizes and incomparable comparisons. 
Ari Kozik, PhD, Assistant Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Michigan State University 
2:30 – 2:45 PMbreak
2:45 – 3:30 PM“Microbiome-based therapeutics in clinical practice: how can we be better stewards?”
Susy Hota, MD, MSc, FRCPC.
Division Head, Infectious Diseases, University Health Network and Sinai Health
Medical Director, Infection Prevention and Control, University Health Network
Co-Lead of the Microbiota Therapeutics Outcomes Program
Associate Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Toronto

Dr. Hota is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Toronto, Division Head for Infectious Diseases at University Health Network and Sinai Health and Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control at University Health Network in Toronto, Canada. Her academic interests include management of Clostridioides difficile infection, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), and emergency preparedness for infectious diseases. She co-leads the Microbiota Therapeutics Outcomes Program, which supports the use of microbiome-based therapeutics for clinical care and research applications in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
3:30 – 4:15 PMThe political economy of emerging digital data collection platforms and applications with microbial stewardship.
Victor Secco, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, Ca Foscari University of Venice
4:15 – 5:00 PMTBD

Webinar Session 2: Focus on Environmental Microbiomes

Format: Webinar presentations of research. Online only — the removal of US federal funding leaves us unable to host this in person.

Cost: Free

Date: Tuesday July 8, 2025; 12:00 ~ 5:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

TimeAgenda
12:00 ~ 12:15 PMWelcome and Intro to the Summit.
Sue Ishaq, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Maine; Founder and Lead, MSE
12:15 ~ 1:00 PM “Microbiome stewardship curricular design using MSE themes“
Carla Bonilla, PhD, Associate Professor of Biology, University of San Diego; MSE

Dr. Bonilla uses critical pedagogy in STEM curriculum to promote student success. In Microbiology and Genetics, she uses an interdisciplinary approach to help students see the connections between science and society, and the role of scientiests as social agents of change.
1:00 ~ 1:45 PM The Concept of Microbiome Stewardship
Mallory Choudoir, PhD, Assistant Professor and Soil Microbiome Extension Specialist, North Carolina State University; MSE
1:45 ~ 2:30 PM “Microbes, microbiomes and biodiversity conservation“
Kent Redford, PhD, Principal, Archipelago Consulting
2:30 – 2:45 PM Break
2:45 – 3:30 PMBuilt environment and microbial exposures.
Jennifer Kuzma, PhD, Professor, School of Public and International Affairs; Co-Director, Genetic Engineering & Society Center; Associate Director, Precision Microbiome Engineering Center (PreMiEr, NSF-ERC); North Carolina State University
Kristen Landreville, PhD, Senior Research Scholar, Societal and Ethical Implications (SEI) Core in the PreMiEr Engineering Research Center, North Carolina State University
3:30 – 4:15 PMAntimicrobial resistance, wastewater, and redlining urban centers.
Maya Nadipalli, PhD, Assistant Professor, Emory University
4:15 – 5:00 PMTBD

Workshop Sessions 1 and 2: Stewardship Planning Activities

Format: Zoom, Breakout rooms for Discussions and Collaborative Activities

Cost: Apply to attend, and if your application is accepted, the cost is $15 USD for students/postdocs, $50 USD for professionals, and there is a no-cost option for anyone who needs it.

Session 1: Focus on Host Microbiomes, Wednesday July 9, 2025, 1:00 ~ 4:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Session 2: Focus on Environmental Microbiomes, Thursday July 10; 1:00 ~ 4:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

TimeActivity
1:00 ~ 1:45 PM

(~ 15 min to get started and ~30 min activity)		Group activity 1: Create your discussion group 
We will use Zoom Breakout Rooms to form groups of 5 -10 people based on several topic themes. Each group will be led by an invited speaker and an MSE group member, and group notetaking will be facilitated using shared online documents.  

Discussion 1 (Foundations)
What is your name and what kind of research do you do? How does the connection between microbiomes and health (human and non-human) relate with your work? What needs to be stewarded/protected in your area of expertise?To achieve goals of microbiome stewardship in your area, what interdisciplinary partnerships, or research or education programs need to be developed? What problems exist in your field that prevent implementing research or policy solutions?
1:45 ~ 2:00 PM
(15 min)		Break 
2:00 – 3:00 PM
(1 hour)		Group activity: Create your path to microbiome stewardship
In Zoom Breakout Rooms organized by broad topics, we will generate case studies related to our own work which would include microbiome stewardship.First, use the template provided to draw your pathway. Then, design a project or research that would advance you along that path. Finally, identify a task list, time table, list of needs, and list of goals/outputs for the project.

During your activity, consider the two discussion prompts: 

Discussion 2 (Policy Connections)
What are the policy domains we need to target for protection of microbial ecosystems to ensure positive health outcomes? What kind of policies could be effective in helping to maintain microbiome health? What agencies or organizations might oversee regulations for the protection of microbial ecosystems? How could one begin to advocate for microbiome health in various policy domains?

Discussion 3 (Getting Microbiome Stewardship onto the Agenda)
How can we raise awareness about the importance of microbial ecologies in human and planetary health? How can we get the protection of microbial ecosystems onto policy maker agendas? What initiatives currently exist with whom we can seek partnerships?
3:30 -3:30 PM
(~30 min)		Share with the full group
Each group will share a summary of their discussions to the full group in the main Zoom room.

What is “microbiome stewardship”?

Microbiomes are essential to human and environmental health; all organisms on our planet rely on the microbial ecologies that inhabit and surround us. There is increasing evidence that modern societal practices are harming essential microbiomes, and thereby threatening the health of the larger organisms and ecosystems that exist in symbiotic relationship with them. In spite of scientific recognition of the importance of microbiomes and of the threats they face, there is very little collective societal action to protect and conserve essential microbiomes. Pesticide use, pollution, industrialized food production, and many other societal practices that are damaging our collective microbiomes can only be addressed at the level of policy. Microbiome stewardship is the broad idea that we need to consider ecosystem-level factors when we think about public health, as our environment, behaviors, and public policy affects interactions between microbes and human health. Microbiomes are highly dynamic systems, featuring bacteria, archaea, protozoa, fungi, and viruses; and our personal microbiomes are derived from a larger shared, collective microbial resource.

The Microbiome Stewardship research group is currently working on creating a definition, framework, and guidelines.

Figure 1. Microbiome stewardship as a concept and framework for ensuring human and planetary health supported by microbial functions. Human microbiomes are constituted from our environment, which has determinants based largely on societal systems (e.g., agriculture and food systems, built environment, health care accessibility) that operate beyond individual choice and behavioral interventions. Figure created with BioRender.com.

Meet the Summit-Organizing Team

A headshot of Dr. Sue Ishaq, PhD in which she is wearing a black and white houndstooth pattern waistcoat and a white button up shirt. Graphics have been added to show a strand of DNA and the words "love your microbes"

Dr. Sue Ishaq, PhD., is an Associate Professor of Microbiomes, University of Maine; and founded MSE in 2020.  Over the years, her research has gone from wild animal gut microbiomes, to soils, to buildings, and back to the gut. Since 2019, her lab in Maine focuses on host-associated microbial communities in animals and humans, and in particular, how host and microbes interact in the gut and can be harnessed to reduce inflammation. She is also the early-career At Large member of the Board of Directors for the American Society for Microbiology, 2024- 2027. 

A headshot of Dr. Kieran O'Doherty, PhD who is wearing a black pinstripe shirt and standing outside in front of a yellow brick wall.

Dr. Kieran C. O’Doherty, PhD., is professor in the department of psychology at the University of Guelph, where he directs the Discourse, Science, Publics research Group. His research focuses on the social and ethical implications of science and technology and public engagement on science and technology. He has published on such topics as data governance, vaccines, human tissue biobanks, the human microbiome, salmon genomics, and genetic testing. A particular emphasis of his research is on theory and methods of public deliberation, in which members of the public are involved in collectively developing recommendations for the governance of science & technology. Recent edited volumes include Psychological Studies of Science and Technology (2019) and The Sage Handbook of Applied Social Psychology (2019). He is editor of Theory & Psychology.

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 Technologies, Inc., a developer of environmental DNA sampling devices.

Dr. Emma AllenVercoe, PhD, is a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Guelph, and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Human Gut Microbiome Function and Host Interactions. Her research portfolio is broad, encompassing host-pathogen interplay, live microbial products as therapeutic agents, gut microbiome and anaerobic culture (humans and animals), and the study of ‘missing gut microbes’ i.e. those that are present in hunter-gatherer societies but missing in the industrialized world.  She has developed the Robogut – a culture system that allows for the growth of gut microbial communities in vitro, and is currently busy a centre for microbiome culture and preservation at the University of Guelph.

Dr. Mallory Choudoir, PhD wearing a button up bro

Dr. Mallory Choudoir, PhD, is an Assistant Professor & Soil Microbiome Extension Specialist in the Department of Plant & Microbial Biology at North Carolina State University. The goal of her applied research and extension program is to translate microbiome science to sustainable agriculture. She aims to develop microbial-centered solutions for optimizing crop productivity, reducing agronomic inputs, and enhancing  agroecosystem resilience to climate change.

Diego Silva, PhD wearing a blue shirt and eye glasses and standing in from of a red brick wall.

Diego Silva, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Bioethics at Sydney Health Ethics and the University of Sydney School of Public Health. His research centers on public health ethics, particularly the application of political theory in the context of infectious diseases and health security, e.g., tuberculosis, COVID-19, antimicrobial resistance, etc. He is currently the outgoing Chair and a member of the Public Health Ethics Consultative Group at the Public Health Agency of Canada and works with the World Health Organization on various public health ethics topics on an ad hoc basis.

MSE seminar today: “Building multifunctional agricultural landscapes – from microbes to people.”

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Events will be hosted January – December, 2024, once a month on a Friday, 12:00 – 14:00 pm ET. Presented over Zoom.

After each talk, we will continue the discussions in an informal social meeting with MSE. All speakers and members of the audience are welcome to join the social meeting.

Hosted by: Sue Ishaq, MSE, and finacially supported by the University of Maine Institute of Medicine and the UMaine Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Committee.

Register here for one or all speakers for free!

“Building multifunctional agricultural landscapes – from microbes to people”

Dr. Aidee Guzman, PhD.

Dec 6, 2024 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. This event has passed, watching the recording here.

Dr. Aidee Guzman is an assistant professor at Stanford University in the Department of Biology in the Ecology and Environmental Science group. Her research group examines agroecological approaches that could harness biodiversity and ecosystem functioning for improved agricultural resilience. Specifically, they investigate how agricultural management impacts biotic interactions (e.g. between plants, insects, and soil microbes) across scales (e.g. shifts in community structure, cascading changes in ecosystem functioning). The overarching goal of her research program is to support farmers, especially those who are historically underserved, through research, education, and outreach that builds on their innovations and demonstrates ecological pathways to agricultural resilience. 

Lab website here.

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