MSE speaker series starts next week, features talks on diet and gut microbes, early life and breastfeeding, soil health, equitable research, how microbes are part of us, and more!

The Microbes and Social Equity Speaker Series starts next week! Join us for talks on microbiomes and health, equity in research, and more!

Spring 2023; January 18 – May, Wednesdays from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST.

Presented over Zoom. Registration is free!

You can register for any or all of the events from the same link here.


Gut microbiome, nutrition, and food security

Theme organized by Sue Ishaq

“Broccoli Sprout Bioactives and Gut Microbiota: A Dietary Approach for Prevention and Management of Inflammatory Bowel Disease”

Dr. Yanyan Li, PhD

January 18, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.

Headshot of Dr. Yanyan Li

Dr. Li is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maine. She received her PhD degree in Nutrition and Food Science from Ohio State University. She has been dedicating herself to studying the mechanisms of diet-derived bioactives in protecting against disease process and harnessing the gained knowledge to develop dietary approaches for disease prevention and management for more than a decade. Since 2016, she has been focusing on the interactions between dietary components, in particular glucosinolates from cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and broccoli sprouts, and gut microbiota, aiming to develop a combined approach for inflammatory bowel disease. Her current research projects are funded by NIH/NIDDK, USDA/NIFA AFRI Foundational Program, and nutrition research programs of private foundations.

Added by Sue: For the past few years, Yanyan and her colleagues have also included the Ishaq Lab, and has led to a rewarding and productive collaboration which has resulted in several recent and forthcoming publications, funding awards, and students trained.

“Exploring Health Determinants, Gut Microbiome, and Health Outcomes in Immigrants”

Dr. Dany Fanfan, Ph.D., MSN, RN

January 25, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.

Headshot of Dr. Dany Fanfan

Dr. Dany Fanfan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida (UF) College of
Nursing. Before becoming a faculty, she completed a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing at
Florida International University, Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Nursing at the
University of South Florida, and a post-doctoral fellowship at UF focused on mental
health research with and for underrepresented populations (e.g., Latino/Haitian
immigrant farmworkers, rural Latino/LGBTQ+ adolescents) using a community-based
participatory research approach and social network analysis. She teaches and engages in
multidisciplinary mixed-methods research dedicated to advancing the science and
practice of reducing mental health disparities among minoritized immigrants by
exploring the underlying biobehavioral, cultural, and psychosocial mechanisms of
distress symptoms. With support from an NIH K23 career development award, she is
now incorporating microbial metagenomics and bioinformatics methods in her research
by examining the associations between post-migration social determinants of health,
gut microbiome, and psychological distress among recent Haitian immigrants. The long-
term goal of her interdisciplinary translational program of research is to identify and
address the conditions that create and sustain health disparities in minoritized
populations as well as develop and test culturally responsive interventions that target
social, behavioral, and biological determinants of health to improve long-term health
outcomes, reduce behavioral and mental health disparities, and increase health equity.

“Personalized nutrition and the human gut microbiome”

Dr. Sean Gibbons, PhD

February 1, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.

Headshot of Dr. Sean Gibbons.

Dr. Sean Gibbons is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Systems Biology, a non-profit research consortium. His lab develops computational and experimental tools for exploring and manipulating host-microbe systems.

Added by Sue: The work from Sean’s group and collaborators has been reshaping the way that host microbial researchers approach their work, by revealing trends through large metanalyses and novel perspectives on using data. Their most recent work has evaluated host-microbial interactions, metabolites, and health.

For the last three years, Sean’s lab has hosted the ISB Virtual Microbiome Series, which is freely available and attracts several thousand participants. The series includes a two day workshop that teaches data analysis skills, and a day-long symposium featuring discussions of current discoveries and conceptualizes the future of microbiome research.

Finally, Sean and his research group have been making science a more welcoming and inclusive place.

Panel discussion on Gut microbiome, nutrition, and food security

February 8, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.

This week, we’ll be bringing all of our Theme 1 speakers back to engage in a panel discussion together on the gut microbiome. Panel will be hosted by Sue Ishaq.

Please note, this session will only be featured live in real-time and will not be recorded.



Prenatal to early-life microbes and health

Theme organized by Emily Wissel.

Speaker confirmed but time TBD:

Dr. Eldin Jašarević, PhD. Magee-Womens Research Institute, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Speaker 4 TBD

February 15, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.

“Intersecting breastmilk and microbiome science with the complexity of working with humans in a clinical context”

Dr. Merilee Brockway, PhD RN IBCLC, University of Calgary

February 22, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.

Dr. Merilee Brockway is a PhD prepared nurse and International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) with expertise in maternal-child health, infant feeding, and patient engagement. She completed my PhD in nursing at the University of Calgary, examining maternal breastfeeding self-efficacy and infant feeding outcomes in moderate and late preterm infants. She also completed a three year post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Manitoba in Dr. Meghan Azad’s THRIVE Discovery Lab, exploring clinical applications of donor human milk for preterm infants. As an Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary, her program of research examines the use of human milk as a clinical intervention to mitigate early life perturbations to the infant microbiome.  

Speaker 6 TBD

March 1, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.

Panel discussion on Prenatal to early-life microbes and health

March 8, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.

This week, we’ll be bringing all of our Theme 2 speakers back to engage in a panel discussion together on the microbiome in early life. Panel will be hosted by Emily Wissel.

Please note, this session will only be featured live in real-time and will not be recorded.



The environment, microbes, and us

Anthropology Theme organized by Katherine Daiy and Kieran O’Doherty, and Environmental Theme organized by Mallory Choudoir, Mustafa Saifuddin, and Hannah Holland-Moritz.

Speakers confirmed by time TBD:

  • Dr. Stephanie Schnorr, University of Vienna, “The human-valued interest in microbiome science is the distillation of human-environmental interactions”

“Microbiome Research with the Yanomami”

David Good, University of Guelph

March 22, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.

David Good

David Good is a PhD student in microbiology at the University of Guelph, Ontario. His general research goal is characterizing the structural and functional microbial diversity of his Yanomami family, the Irokae-teri, located in the Amazon rainforest of Venezuela. They are of great interest in the microbiome field since the Irokae-teri live fully immersed in the rainforest environment and subsist by an active lifestyle of hunting-gathering and small-scale gardening. Furthermore, their relative isolation deep in the Amazon limits their exposure to microbiome stressors such as antibiotics, highly refined and processed foods, industrial toxins and pollutants, food preservatives, etc. David will discuss this unique and rare opportunity to advance our understanding of the human microbiome of a community largely unperturbed by westernization, while building global awareness on the importance of protecting these few remaining isolated indigenous societies. However, such research brings numerous challenges surrounding bioethics. David hopes to build dialogue around going beyond simple compliance in microbiome research, and how the Yanomami have the right to self-determination and harness their bioeconomic potential to protect their home.

Photo sourced from: https://www.jointhegoodproject.org/team

“Religion, Race and the Microbe: Theological Analysis of Public Health Resistance in the Pandemicine”

Dr. Aminah Al-Attas Bradford, PhD.

March 29, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.

Dr. Bradford is a research scholar in NC State’s Public Science Lab for Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity of Humans and Food where she draws together interdisciplinary engagement of microbes, exploring fermentation, probiotic health and pathogens. Working at the intersections of religion, microbiology, ecology and race, Dr. Bradford’s research investigates the historical entanglement of disease theories, public health strategy, Christian thought, and coloniality to cultivate ecological wisdom, scientific engagement and the pursuit of environmental justice in religious contexts. She asks questions like, how have the historical entanglement of epidemiology, coloniality and Christian teaching contributed to the disease of both body and planet, the disproportionate effects of which are born by black and brown communities? How has demonizing the microbe paved the way for oppression of those deemed sub-human? And how might microbiome science reform Christian thought that often disrupts engagement of science and is complicit in exploitative and exclusionary ways of being?

Speaker 9 TBD

April 5, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.

“Anthropology, Microbiomes, and Antimicrobial Resistance”

Dr. Cecil Lewis, PhD.

April 12, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.

Dr. Cecil Lewis is a Professor at the University of Oklahoma.

Image sourced from: https://cecilmlewis.com/

Dr. Anna Krzywoszynska, PhD.

April 19, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.

Dr. Anna Krzywoszynska is starting a position as an Associate Professor of Transdisciplinary Human-Environment Relations, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu, Finland.

Speaker 12 TBD

April 26, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.

Panel Discussion on the environment, microbes, and us

May 3, 2023; Wednesday,11:00 AM – 1:00 PM EST. Register for the Zoom link here.

This week, we’ll be bringing all of our Theme 3 speakers back to engage in a panel discussion together on the importance of environmental microbiomes and our place in ecosystems, and then will continue talking about soil health. Panel will be hosted by Katherine Daiy, Kieran O’Doherty, Mallory Choudoir, Mustafa Saifuddin, and Hannah Holland-Moritz.

Please note, this session will only be featured live in real-time and will not be recorded.


Logo designed by Alex Guillen

Happening today, ‘Session 4: Community engagement and collaboration’ at the July 2022 MSE virtual symposium!

Today is the fourth day of the July 2022 MSE virtual symposium, which is focused on “Community engagement and collaboration”. Don’t worry, you still have time to register and join the conversation!

This session will feature four talks featuring researchers who have experience bringing communities and members of the public into research teams as contributing members, rather than just study subjects. Not only does this improve the relationship between research and the public, but it creates better-informed research studies and wider spread of positive impacts. Our hope is that attendees for this session learn from different perspectives how to engage with communities early on to spark conversations and collaboration with their research.

Session 4: “Community engagement and collaboration”

Thursday, July 21st, 12:30 ~ 16:00 EST. post updated: This session has passed, watch the recorded talks.

Session leaders:

Portrait of Mustafa Saifuddin, Ph.D.,

Mustafa Saifuddin, Ph.D., Staff Scientist, Sustainable Food and Farming Program at Earthjustice

Ashley M. Toney, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow, UTHealth School of Public Health, El Paso. Translational/Clinical Nutrition Researcher focused on Latine Health Disparities.

Scope: Due to the interconnectedness of microbial processes and social justice, many types of microbial research could benefit from closer collaborations with communities impacted directly by the public health, environmental and climate justice implications of microbiomes. Some styles of microbiome research would yield more positive outcomes if the collaboration was built around mutual long-term goals, instead of specific projects, and if it was initiated during project conceptualization instead of after the project has been designed. This session will explore different styles of interdisciplinary collaborations centered on community needs, such as community advisory boards, community partnerships, community-led research design, and how to implement this into microbiome research.

Learning Objective of Session: Attendees will learn 1) approaches to community-centered collaborations, 2) how to leverage community professionals (e.g. health workers) in a ‘train the trainer model’, 3) how to start ethical conversations around environmental samples & broader experimental design, and 4) how to emphasize collaborations – including public health, government, policy makers, etc. as a collaborator and how to ask for their help/mindful collaborations.

Format of talks: Four 30-min lecture-style talks from researchers who have successfully built research collaborations with communities.

Format of breakout rooms: Each room creates a plan for engagement, and each room has a designated topic area (e.g. environmental restoration) to help audience members group by research discipline.

Session Speakers:

Dr. Pajau (PJ) Vangay, PhD. Science Community Manager, National Microbiome Data Collaborative, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

“Advancing microbiome science, in partnership with communities”

Dr. Rosie Alegado

Dr. Rosie Alegado, PhD., Associate Professor, Oceanography; Director, Sea Grant Ulana ʻIke Center of Excellence; Director, School of Ocean and and Earth Science and Technology Maile Mentoring Bridge Program at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa

“Community-embedded microbiology in Indigenous spaces”

Dr. Arbor Quist

Dr. Arbor Quist, PhD., Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Justice & Community-Driven Epidemiology in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California.

“Partnering with Communities in Environmental Disaster Research”

Professional headshot of Dr. Aidee Guzman

Dr. Aidee Guzman, PhD., NSF and UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Irvine.

“Building agricultural resilience from the ground up.”

12:30 – 14:15 Introduction and Speakers

14:15 – 14:30 Break

14:30 – 15:00 Fourth speaker

15:00 -16:00 Breakout room discussions based on skills development, in smaller groups

  • Community-based participatory research (CBPR) & Scientific Community Engagement
  • Best engagement practices (and things to avoid)
  • Community driven epidemiology
  • Agricultural community engagement
  • Finding a community to engage

Prior to this session, you may want to watch these recorded talks:

One week until ‘Session 4: Community engagement and collaboration’ at the July 2022 MSE virtual symposium!

We are a week away from the fourth day of the July 2022 MSE virtual symposium, which is focused on “Community engagement and collaboration”. This session will feature four talks featuring researchers who have experience bringing communities and members of the public into research teams as contributing members, rather than just study subjects. Not only does this improve the relationship between research and the public, but it creates better-informed research studies and wider spread of positive impacts. Our hope is that attendees for this session learn from different perspectives how to engage with communities early on to spark conversations and collaboration with their research.

Session 4: “Community engagement and collaboration”

Thursday, July 21st, 12:30 ~ 16:00 EST. Register for this session, which is free and will be held over Zoom

Session leaders:

Portrait of Mustafa Saifuddin, Ph.D.,

Mustafa Saifuddin, Ph.D., Staff Scientist, Sustainable Food and Farming Program at Earthjustice

Ashley M. Toney, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow, UTHealth School of Public Health, El Paso. Translational/Clinical Nutrition Researcher focused on Latine Health Disparities.

Scope: Due to the interconnectedness of microbial processes and social justice, many types of microbial research could benefit from closer collaborations with communities impacted directly by the public health, environmental and climate justice implications of microbiomes. Some styles of microbiome research would yield more positive outcomes if the collaboration was built around mutual long-term goals, instead of specific projects, and if it was initiated during project conceptualization instead of after the project has been designed. This session will explore different styles of interdisciplinary collaborations centered on community needs, such as community advisory boards, community partnerships, community-led research design, and how to implement this into microbiome research.

Learning Objective of Session: Attendees will learn 1) approaches to community-centered collaborations, 2) how to leverage community professionals (e.g. health workers) in a ‘train the trainer model’, 3) how to start ethical conversations around environmental samples & broader experimental design, and 4) how to emphasize collaborations – including public health, government, policy makers, etc. as a collaborator and how to ask for their help/mindful collaborations.

Format of talks: Four 30-min lecture-style talks from researchers who have successfully built research collaborations with communities.

Format of breakout rooms: Each room creates a plan for engagement, and each room has a designated topic area (e.g. environmental restoration) to help audience members group by research discipline.

Session Speakers:

Dr. Pajau (PJ) Vangay, PhD. Science Community Manager, National Microbiome Data Collaborative, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

“Advancing microbiome science, in partnership with communities”

Dr. Rosie Alegado

Dr. Rosie Alegado, PhD., Associate Professor, Oceanography; Director, Sea Grant Ulana ʻIke Center of Excellence; Director, School of Ocean and and Earth Science and Technology Maile Mentoring Bridge Program at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa

“Community-embedded microbiology in Indigenous spaces”

Dr. Arbor Quist

Dr. Arbor Quist, PhD., Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Justice & Community-Driven Epidemiology in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California.

“Partnering with Communities in Environmental Disaster Research”

Professional headshot of Dr. Aidee Guzman

Dr. Aidee Guzman, PhD., NSF and UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Irvine.

“Building agricultural resilience from the ground up.”

12:30 – 14:15 Introduction and Speakers

14:15 – 14:30 Break

14:30 – 15:00 Fourth speaker

15:00 -16:00 Breakout room discussions based on skills development, in smaller groups

  • Community-based participatory research (CBPR) & Scientific Community Engagement
  • Best engagement practices (and things to avoid)
  • Community driven epidemiology
  • Agricultural community engagement
  • Finding a community to engage

Prior to this session, you may want to watch these recorded talks:

Speaker lineup confirmed for ‘Session 4: Community engagement and collaboration’ at the July 2022 MSE virtual symposium!

The speaker lineup is set for the fourth day of the July 2022 MSE virtual symposium, which is focused on “Community engagement and collaboration”. This session will feature three talks featuring researchers who have experience creating research with communities. This session will explore different styles of interdisciplinary collaborations centered on community needs, such as community advisory boards, community partnerships, community-led research design, and how to implement this into microbiome research. Our hope is that attendees for this session learn from different perspectives how foster their own community connections which would benefit their work.

The program for the July 2022 MSE virtual symposium, “Developing transformative Research Skills”, is beginning to take shape as we continue to confirm speakers for the 5 sessions, the full program for which can be found here.

Session 4: “Community engagement and collaboration”

Thursday, July 21st, 12:30 ~ 16:00 EST. Register for this session.

Session leaders:

Portrait of Mustafa Saifuddin, Ph.D.,

Mustafa Saifuddin, Ph.D., Staff Scientist, Sustainable Food and Farming Program at Earthjustice

Ashley M. Toney, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow, UTHealth School of Public Health, El Paso. Translational/Clinical Nutrition Researcher focused on Latine Health Disparities.

Scope: Due to the interconnectedness of microbial processes and social justice, many types of microbial research could benefit from closer collaborations with communities impacted directly by the public health, environmental and climate justice implications of microbiomes. Some styles of microbiome research would yield more positive outcomes if the collaboration was built around mutual long-term goals, instead of specific projects, and if it was initiated during project conceptualization instead of after the project has been designed. This session will explore different styles of interdisciplinary collaborations centered on community needs, such as community advisory boards, community partnerships, community-led research design, and how to implement this into microbiome research.

Learning Objective of Session: Attendees will learn 1) approaches to community-centered collaborations, 2) how to leverage community professionals (e.g. health workers) in a ‘train the trainer model’, 3) how to start ethical conversations around environmental samples & broader experimental design, and 4) how to emphasize collaborations – including public health, government, policy makers, etc. as a collaborator and how to ask for their help/mindful collaborations.

Format of talks: Three 30-min lecture-style talks from researchers who have successfully built research collaborations with communities.

Format of breakout rooms: Each room creates a plan for engagement, and each room has a designated topic area (e.g. environmental restoration) to help audience members group by research discipline.

Session Speakers:

Dr. Pajau (PJ) Vangay, PhD. Science Community Manager, National Microbiome Data Collaborative, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

“Advancing microbiome science, in partnership with communities”

Dr. Arbor Quist, PhD., Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Justice & Community-Driven Epidemiology at the University of Southern California.

Dr. Rosie Alegado, PhD., Associate Professor of Oceanography & Sea Grant College Program at  University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

12:30 – 14:15 Introduction and Speakers

14:15 – 14:30 Break

14:30 – 16:00 Breakout room discussions based on skills development, in smaller groups

  • Topics in development

Prior to this session, you may want to watch these recorded talks:

Introducing the Microbes and Social Equity Working Group: Considering the Microbial Components of Social, Environmental, and Health Justice

The Microbes and Social Equity Working Group is delighted to make its published debut, with this collaboratively-written perspective piece introducing ourselves and our goals. You can read about us here.

This piece also debuts the special series we are curating in partnership with the scientific journal mSystems; “Special Series: Social Equity as a Means of Resolving Disparities in Microbial Exposure“. Over the next few months to a year, we will be adding additional peer-reviewed, cutting edge research, review, concept, and perspective pieces from researchers around the globe on a myriad of topics which center around social inequity and microbial exposures.

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.

Woman in a dress sitting in front of a laptop displaying the title slide to a presentation called "Microbes on the Farm".

Virtually speaking

This fall, my speaking engagements will all be held virtually, to aid in ongoing infectious-disease-prevention protocols. While in place to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, these same protocols will also help me avoid the annual fall respiratory infection that I otherwise inevitably encounter while working with overly-stressed students.

But, staying away from others doesn’t mean I can’t stay connected! Virtual events might not feel as fun, but they have allowed me to reach a wider audience, because recorded talks are made available after the live event. And, annotated or subtitled recordings make my talks more accessible!

This fall, I have several public talks and scientific presentations lined up:

  1. University of Maine Cooperative Extension Oxford County 4-H Teen Science Cafe (virtual), “Gut microbes on the farm”, Oct 15, 2020. For teens, this event is free but does require registration to obtain the link.
  2. BioME (Bioscience Association of Maine) Virtual Coffee Hour, Oct 14, 2020. This event is open to the public but requires registration.
  3. Genomes to Phenomes (G2P) group, University of Maine. Co-hosting a session with grad student Alice Hotopp, on gut microbes and survival of reintroduced animals. Oct 30, 2020. Link available to University of Maine community members.
  4. University of Maine Medicine seminar series (virtual), “A crash course in the gut microbiome” , Nov 6, 2020. This event is open to the public and free, but does require registration to obtain the link.
  5. Hotopp, A., Silverbrand, S., Ishaq, S.L.,  MacRae, J.,  Stock, S.P.,  Groden, E. “Can a necromenic nematode serve as a biological Trojan horse for an invasive ant?” Entomological Society of America 2020 (virtual). Nov 15-18, 2020. This pre-recorded seminar requires paid event registration.
  6. Yeoman (presenter), C., Lachman, M., Ishaq, S., Olivo, S., Swartz, J., Herrygers, M., Berarddinelli, J.  “Development of Climactic Oral and Rectal Microbiomes Corresponds to Peak Immunoglobin Titers in Lambs.”  Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (CRWAD) 2020. (Virtual) Dec 5, 2020. This seminar requires paid event registration.

‘Microbes on the Farm’ video available

Last week, I gave a presentation to the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Oxford County 4-H Jamboree.

The video is available on YouTube, with subtitles! I sat down to learn how to create and embed them in videos, to help make my science more approachable. The video is made for kids and contains suitable content for all ages, although the difficulty of the content makes it best for kids 12 and up.

Still time to sign up for UMaine 4H virtual summer programs!

Looking for kids’ activities for the summer? Check out the virtual programs hosted by the University of Maine Extension 4H! Learn about animals, how to care for them, and how your food system works.

From their main page, you can find descriptions of each virtual session, including subject material, presenter, and recommended age group (k-12). You can register for as many or as few sessions as you like, which will be delivered over Zoom.

Registration is free! But if you are able to donate to support the program, those are welcome through the 4H site.

I’ll be presenting on Thursday, August 13th, 2020 at 3 pm EST.

Gut Microbes on the Farm

Learn about different digestive tracts in livestock, and the community of microbes living there that help animals digest food, or stay healthy. This presentation will give some background on different digestive tract anatomy, the factors which influence microbes in the gut, and how we can care for animals by caring for their microbes. This presentation will also feature a short presentation on Dr. Ishaq’s journey into science and a Q&A session where attendees can ask questions about gut microbes, life as a scientist, or how to get involved in this time of career. Register by August 12.

Youth ages 12 & up; open to all youth.

A picture pointing downwards at two hands wearing gardening gloves and holding handfuls of soil in each hand. Roots and leaves protrude from the soil and the grass on the ground is blurred in the background.

Compost, food security, and social justice

What do compost, food security, and social justice have in common? They are all part of creating sustainable, more localized food systems that benefit the community. Want to know more? Check out the piece I co-wrote for The Conversation, along with two other soil microbe researchers.

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

Dr. Kristen DeAngelis is an Associate Professor who studies microbes in soils, climate change, and human impacts, and Dr. Gwynne Mhuireach, a post-doctoral researcher who studies microbes in soils in the built environment and human health.

Research article for young scientists published!

I tried something new last new, I helped rewrite an already published study into a version specifically for young scientists, aged 10-18. Ashkaan Fahimipour, the lead author on the original research article examining the effect of light on bacterial communities in household dust, brought up the idea while we were working together at BioBE.

The journal is called Frontier for Young Minds, and pairs a young scientist with an established scientist to review your articles, a ~1,500 word summary version. The journal provides cartoon illustrations that help bring your science to life.

Ours was written by an undergrad I was mentoring at UO, Sam Rosenberg, and architecture grad student Julia May helped us with our Figures. I wasn’t involved with the original article, but along with Ashkaan, I helped Sam draft the summary as non-technical summaries of highly-technical science can be a real challenge. Check it out!

Rosenberg, S., Ishaq, S., May, J., Fahimipour, A.K. 2020. How light exposure changes bacterial communities in household dust. Frontiers for Young Minds. Article.