This Wednesday there is another installment in the spring 2022 Microbes and Social Equity speaker series! Each week, we’ll hear from a researcher who will share their work and perspective on how microbes are involved in all aspects of our lives, and how those microbes can affect individuals, communities, and ecosystems.
This series will run from Jan 19 – May 4, Wednesdays at 12:00 – 13:00 EST. These are presented over Zoom, and open to researchers, practitioners, students, and the public. Registration is free, and required for each individual seminar you would like to attend. You can find the full speaker list, details, and registration links for each seminar in the series here.
“The role of microbiomes in sustainable agriculture and food systems integrated with human health”.
Dr. Franck Carbonero. Photo borrowed from WSU faculty page.
About the speaker: Dr. Frank Carbonero, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology at Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine.
He received his Bachelor’s of Science in Biology from Universite Joseph Fourier, in France, his Master’s of Science degree in Ecology from Universite Blaise Pascal, in France, and his Ph.D. degree in Microbiology from the University of Warwick, in the United Kingdom. After that, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for three years, and has served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Food Science at the University of Arkansas since 2013. His research program is focused on nutrition and its impact on the human and animal gut microbiome, with focus on dietary bioactives, including from berries.
Today there is another installment in the spring 2022 Microbes and Social Equity speaker series! Each week, we’ll hear from a researcher who will share their work and perspective on how microbes are involved in all aspects of our lives, and how those microbes can affect individuals, communities, and ecosystems.
This series will run from Jan 19 – Apr 27, Wednesdays at 12:00 – 13:00 EST. These are presented over Zoom, and open to researchers, practitioners, students, and the public. Registration is free, and required for each individual seminar you would like to attend. You can find the full speaker list, details, and registration links for each seminar in the series here.
About the speaker: Dr. Katherine (Katie) Amato is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University. From her faculty profile page: “Katie Amato is a biological anthropologist studying the gut microbiota in the broad context of host ecology and evolution. She is particularly interested in understanding how changes in the gut microbiota impact human nutrition and health in populations around the world, especially those with limited access to nutritional resources.”
Talk summary: The talk explores how the microbiome is likely to be a mediating pathway that translates disparities in people’s environments to disparities in health outcomes. It outlines the current state of the literature in this area and broadly suggests ways to move forward. Dr. Amato’s recent publication on this topic can be found here.
This Wednesday there is another installment in the spring 2022 Microbes and Social Equity speaker series! Each week, we’ll hear from a researcher who will share their work and perspective on how microbes are involved in all aspects of our lives, and how those microbes can affect individuals, communities, and ecosystems.
This series will run from Jan 19 – Apr 27, Wednesdays at 12:00 – 13:00 EST. These are presented over Zoom, and open to researchers, practitioners, students, and the public. Registration is free, and required for each individual seminar you would like to attend. You can find the full speaker list, details, and registration links for each seminar in the series here.
About the speaker: Dr. Katherine (Katie) Amato is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University. From her faculty profile page: “Katie Amato is a biological anthropologist studying the gut microbiota in the broad context of host ecology and evolution. She is particularly interested in understanding how changes in the gut microbiota impact human nutrition and health in populations around the world, especially those with limited access to nutritional resources.”
Talk summary: The talk explores how the microbiome is likely to be a mediating pathway that translates disparities in people’s environments to disparities in health outcomes. It outlines the current state of the literature in this area and broadly suggests ways to move forward. Dr. Amato’s recent publication on this topic can be found here.
Today kicks off the spring 2022 Microbes and Social Equity speaker series! Each week, we’ll hear from a researcher who will share their work and perspective on how microbes are involved in all aspects of our lives, and how those microbes can affect individuals, communities, and ecosystems.
This series will run from Jan 19 – Apr 27, Wednesdays at 12:00 – 13:00 EST. These are presented over Zoom, and open to researchers, practitioners, students, and the public. Registration is free, and required for each individual seminar you would like to attend. You can find the full speaker list, details, and registration links for each seminar in the series here.
“Microbes at the nexus of environmental, biological, and social research”
About the speaker: Dr. Sue Ishaq is an Assistant Professor of Animal and Veterinary Science at the University of Maine, in the School of Food and Agriculture. She received her doctorate in Animal, Nutrition and Food Science from the University of Vermont in 2015 where her graduate study focused on the rumen microbiology of the moose. She held post-doctoral positions at Montana State University, and a research faculty position at the University of Oregon. 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. In addition to her research on gut microbes, Dr. Ishaq is the founder of the Microbes and Social Equity working group. This group formed to examine, publicize and promote a research program on the reciprocal impact of social inequality and microbiomes, both human and environmental.
This Wednesday kicks off the spring 2022 Microbes and Social Equity speaker series! Each week, we’ll hear from a researcher who will share their work and perspective on how microbes are involved in all aspects of our lives, and how those microbes can affect individuals, communities, and ecosystems.
This series will run from Jan 19 – Apr 27, Wednesdays at 12:00 – 13:00 EST. These are presented over Zoom, and open to researchers, practitioners, students, and the public. Registration is free, and required for each individual seminar you would like to attend. You can find the full speaker list, details, and registration links for each seminar in the series here.
“Microbes at the nexus of environmental, biological, and social research”
About the speaker: Dr. Sue Ishaq is an Assistant Professor of Animal and Veterinary Science at the University of Maine, in the School of Food and Agriculture. She received her doctorate in Animal, Nutrition and Food Science from the University of Vermont in 2015 where her graduate study focused on the rumen microbiology of the moose. She held post-doctoral positions at Montana State University, and a research faculty position at the University of Oregon. 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. In addition to her research on gut microbes, Dr. Ishaq is the founder of the Microbes and Social Equity working group. This group formed to examine, publicize and promote a research program on the reciprocal impact of social inequality and microbiomes, both human and environmental.
Registration is now open for the Microbes and Social Equity speaker series, which is in its second year this spring. Hurry, the first seminar is on Wednesday, Jan 19th!
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.
“The Microbes and Social Equity Speaker Series 2022”
Spring 2022; Jan 19 – Apr 27, Wednesdays at 12:00 – 13:00 EST
Presented over Zoom. Registration is free, and required for each seminar.
Hosting Organization: MSE and the University of Maine Institute of Medicine
“Microbes at the nexus of environmental, biological, and social research”
About the speaker: Dr. Sue Ishaq is an Assistant Professor of Animal and Veterinary Science at the University of Maine, in the School of Food and Agriculture. She received her doctorate in Animal, Nutrition and Food Science from the University of Vermont in 2015 where her graduate study focused on the rumen microbiology of the moose. She held post-doctoral positions at Montana State University, and a research faculty position at the University of Oregon. 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. In addition to her research on gut microbes, Dr. Ishaq is the founder of the Microbes and Social Equity working group. This group formed to examine, publicize and promote a research program on the reciprocal impact of social inequality and microbiomes, both human and environmental.
Dr. Katie Amato. Photo borrowed from Northwestern University
About the speaker: Dr. Katherine (Katie) Amato is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University. From her faculty profile page: “Katie Amato is a biological anthropologist studying the gut microbiota in the broad context of host ecology and evolution. She is particularly interested in understanding how changes in the gut microbiota impact human nutrition and health in populations around the world, especially those with limited access to nutritional resources.”
Talk summary: The talk explores how the microbiome is likely to be a mediating pathway that translates disparities in people’s environments to disparities in health outcomes. It outlines the current state of the literature in this area and broadly suggests ways to move forward. Dr. Amato’s recent publication on this topic can be found here.
About the speaker: Dr. Jake Robinson is an ecologist and researcher. He recently completed a PhD at the University of Sheffield, UK. His academic interests lie at the intersection of microbial ecology, ecosystem restoration and social research. He will soon be publishing a book called Invisible Friends, which is all about our extraordinary relationship with microbes, and how they shape our lives and the world around us.
About the speaker: Dr. Douglas Call is a Regents Professor at the Paul G. Allen School for Global Health, in Molecular Epidemiology, and the Associate Director for Research and Graduate Education, at Washington State University.
Dr. Kristina Lyons. Photo reused from the University of Pennsylvania faculty page.
About the speaker: Dr. Kristina Lyons is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and with the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania. She also holds affiliations with the Center for Experimental Ethnography and the Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies. Kristina’s current research is situated at the interfaces of socio-ecological conflicts, science, and legal studies in Colombia and Latin America. Her manuscript, Vital Decomposition: Soil Practitioners and Life Politics (Duke 2020), was awarded honorable mention by the Bryce Wood Book Award committee from the Latin American Studies Association. She has also collaborated on the creation of soundscapes, street performances, photographic essays, graphic novels, popular education audiovisual projects, community radio programs, digital storytelling platforms, and various forms of literary writing.
Talk summary: How does attention to and stewardship of soils point to alternative frameworks for living and dying? Dr. Lyons explores the way life strives to flourish in the face of violence, criminalization, and poisoning produced by militarized, growth-oriented development in the midst of the U.S.-Colombia war on drugs.
Title TBD
Dr. Travis J. De Wolfe, PhD
Date TBD, 2022, 12:00 – 13:00 EST.
About the speaker: Dr. Travis J. De Wolfe, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia.
About the speaker: Dr. Maya Hey is a postdoctoral researcher with the Future Organisms project as part of an international trans-disciplinary team investigating Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). She brings a humanities and social science perspective to the life sciences, calling upon feminist, intersectional, and multispecies approaches to map out human response-ability in a more-than-human world. She is vested in questions related to fermentation, particularly as they relate to discourses of health, the rhetoric of microbiomes, and how we come to know microbial life.”
A scientific article led by my colleague Dr. Alaa Rabee at the Desert Research Center in Egypt was just published online and is now available! Dr. Rabee and I have been collaborating remotely on projects related to the bacteria in the rumen of camels, sheep, and cows, as Dr. Rabee’s work focuses on the isolation of bacteria which can degrade plant materials efficiently and could be used to produce biofuels. He will be spending 6 months working in my lab as a visiting scholar, which was delayed until this year because of the pandemic.
Rabee, A.E., Sayed Alahl, A.A., Lamara, M., Ishaq, S.L. 2022. Fibrolytic rumen bacteria of camel and sheep and their applications in the bioconversion of barley straw to soluble sugars for biofuel production. PLoS ONE 17(1): e0262304. Article.
Abstract
Lignocellulosic biomass such as barley straw is a renewable and sustainable alternative to traditional feeds and could be used as bioenergy sources; however, low hydrolysis rate reduces the fermentation efficiency. Understanding the degradation and colonization of barley straw by rumen bacteria is the key step to improve the utilization of barley straw in animal feeding or biofuel production. This study evaluated the hydrolysis of barley straw as a result of the inoculation by rumen fluid of camel and sheep. Ground barley straw was incubated anaerobically with rumen inocula from three fistulated camels (FC) and three fistulated sheep (FR) for a period of 72 h. The source of rumen inoculum did not affect the disappearance of dry matter (DMD), neutral detergent fiber (NDFD). Group FR showed higher production of glucose, xylose, and gas; while higher ethanol production was associated with cellulosic hydrolysates obtained from FC group. The diversity and structure of bacterial communities attached to barley straw was investigated by Illumina Mi-Seq sequencing of V4-V5 region of 16S rRNA genes. The bacterial community was dominated by phylum Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. The dominant genera were RC9_gut_group, Ruminococcus, Saccharofermentans, Butyrivibrio, Succiniclasticum, Selenomonas, and Streptococcus, indicating the important role of these genera in lignocellulose fermentation in the rumen. Group FR showed higher RC9_gut_group and group FC revealed higher Ruminococcus, Saccharofermentans, and Butyrivibrio. Higher enzymes activities (cellulase and xylanase) were associated with group FC. Thus, bacterial communities in camel and sheep have a great potential to improve the utilization lignocellulosic material in animal feeding and the production of biofuel and enzymes.
The Microbes and Social Equity working group is putting together a special session at the American Society for Microbiology’s annual Microbe meeting, which will be held in Washington, D.C. from June 9 – 13, 2022.
Microorganisms are critical to many aspects of biological life, including human health. 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 special session 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.
Upon completion of this Cross-Track Symposium, the participant should be able to:
Recognize the connections that microbiomes have to social equity. This will be demonstrated with examples/case studies presented by speakers.
Discuss relevant issues in microbiomes and their connection to social equity and identify issues which could be explored further.
Appraise your own work for these connections between microbiomes and social equity, to designate places for professional growth and applying equitable design.
The Microbes and Social Equity working group has published its second collaborative paper together, led by Dr. Jake Robinson and featuring 25 other MSE group researchers in various fields related to microbiomes, social equity, and ecosystems. In developing this paper, we had many conversations about what had been accomplished in research related to microbial exposure, as well as what had yet to be done. We provide some background information as context, and spend the majority of the paper outlining twenty of the most poignant research directions. There are so many questions yet to be answered about the way the microbial communities interact with human lives, and how our lives impact them back. In our enthusiasm for the topics, we could have endlessly chatted about research, such that we decided to limit ourselves to twenty questions. We hope that this piece becomes a source for inspiration for others who continue this conversation and future research in these areas.
You can find a link below to read the full article, and links to the authors’ twitter feeds if you’d like to check them out on social media. You’ll be able to hear more about this publication in an upcoming seminar from Jake, as part of the 2022 MSE speaker series, which is open to all and free to attend over zoom.
Social and political policy, human activities, and environmental change affect the ways in which microbial communities assemble and interact with people. These factors determine how different social groups are exposed to beneficial and/or harmful microorganisms, meaning microbial exposure has an important socioecological justice context. Therefore, greater consideration of microbial exposure and social equity in research, planning, and policy is imperative. Here, we identify 20 research questions considered fundamentally important to promoting equitable exposure to beneficial microorganisms, along with safeguarding resilient societies and ecosystems. The 20 research questions we identified span seven broad themes, including the following: (i) sociocultural interactions; (ii) Indigenous community health and well-being; (iii) humans, urban ecosystems, and environmental processes; (iv) human psychology and mental health; (v) microbiomes and infectious diseases; (vi) human health and food security; and (vii) microbiome-related planning, policy, and outreach. Our goal was to summarize this growing field and to stimulate impactful research avenues while providing focus for funders and policymakers.
This has been a busy year for the Ishaq Lab, which has been at UMaine since September of 2019 and has built up significant momentum in that time, despite the ongoing challenges of trying to accomplish research and education during a pandemic.
Team
The Ishaq Lab managed to find time to get a group photo early this year.
Graduate and undergraduate students are critical members of the Ishaq Lab, where they assist with or perform their own research, and are both mentored by me or are being cross-trained by me to complement the work they perform in their primary lab. A crowd of students have been in the Ishaq Lab over the course of this year, which wasn’t apparent until I tallied them for research outcomes reporting purposes, as some are partially or entirely remote, and we’ve never all gathered in one place. Partly, because of pandemic safety precautions, and partly, because of busy schedules, the entire research group had not been able to meet in person for most of the last two years, and it was only this year that we finally got a group photo. Of course, that photo was almost immediately inaccurate as we welcomed several new members this fall to add to our collective expertise.
Students mentored
09/2019-06/2020
07/2020 – 06/2021
07/2021-06/2022
Total all
9
28
24
PhD, committee member
1
2
3
MS, primary mentor
0
2
2
MS, committee member
2
3
2
MPS, primary mentor
1
1
0
Honors, primary mentor
1
2
0
Honors, committee member
0
1
1
Capstone
1
10
12
Top Scholar
0
1
1
BS, primary mentor
2
0
0
REU
1
1
1
Summary of students working in or with the Ishaq Lab, by academic year.
My dog, Izzy, started coming to campus this fall to avoid some home construction, but she immediately became part of campus life. She would come to classes and entertain and calm the students, distract Zoom meetings by trying to climb out the window behind me, and helped catalogue all the squirrels on campus.
This year, the Ishaq lab said hello as well as good-bye to students, as we have been around long enough that students are matriculating (graduating) out and moving on to the next stage of their life. Emily Pierce (B.S. AVS 2021) is now attending veterinary school at Kansas State, and Jade Chin (B.S. AVS 2022) is attending Glasgow University for her senior year and veterinary school as part of their accelerated training program, while Grace Lee graduated from Bowdoin College (B.S. Neuroscience, 2021) and has been working there as a research assistant. Grace is a co-author with me on a paper currently in review, and other in preparation. Tindall defended her master’s of science thesis at Montana State University in August, and has been working as a research assistant performing more plant-soil feedback research while she finishes writing up the results from her graduate work for journal publication.
Publications
We had a productive year for peer-reviewed journal publications – with 8 accepted or published – the second highest total in a year I’ve ever had. Several of these have been in development since prior to 2021, several are the first publications for students, and all of which are thanks to my fabulous research collaboration team that now spans the globe. There are handful more papers in peer review at scientific journals, and others which are in preparation and which we hope to submit for peer review in 2022.
Tindall’s first and first first-authored paper, on soil microbiomes:
Dankwa, A.S., U. Humagain, S.L. Ishaq, C.J. Yeoman, S. Clark , D.C. Beitz, and E. D. Testroet. 2021. Determination of the microbial community in the rumen and fecal matter of lactating dairy cows fed on reduced-fat dried distillers grains with solubles. Animal 15(7):100281. Article.
Ishaq, S.L., A. Hotopp, S. Silverbrand, J.E. Dumont, A. Michaud, J. MacRae, S. P. Stock, E. Groden. 2021. Bacterial transfer from Pristionchus entomophagus nematodes to the invasive ant Myrmica rubra and the potential for colony mortality in coastal Maine. iScience 24(6):102663. Article.
Zeng, H., Safratowich, B.D., Liu, Z., Bukowski, , M.R., Ishaq, S.L. 2021. Adequacy of calcium and vitamin D reduces inflammation, β-catenin signaling, and dysbiotic Parasutterella bacteria in the colon of C57BL/6 mice fed a Western-style diet. Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry 92: 108613. Article.
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
Many MSE members also put together a review and perspective piece about setting research priorities:
Robinson, J.M., Redvers, N., Camargo, A., Bosch, C.A., Breed, M.F., Brenner, L.A., Carney, M.A., Chauhan, A., Dasari, M., Dietz, L.G., Friedman, M., Grieneisen, L., Hoisington, A.J., Horve, P.F., Hunter, A., Jech, S., Jorgensen, A., Lowry, C.A., Man, I., Mhuireach, G., Navarro-Pérez, E., Ritchie, E.G., Stewart, J.D., Watkins, H., Weinstein, P., and Ishaq, S.L. 2021. Twenty important research questions in microbial exposure and social equity. mSystemsAccepted Dec 2021. Special Series: Social Equity as a Means of Resolving Disparities in Microbial Exposure
The first paper from a two year collaboration with Dr. Rabee, a researcher in Eqypt who is planning to visit my lab in 2022 as part of a fellowship he was awarded.
Rabee, A.E., Sayed Alahl, A.A., Lamara, M., Ishaq, S.L. 2022. Fibrolytic rumen bacteria of camel and sheep and their applications in the bioconversion of barley straw to soluble sugars for biofuel production. PLoS ONEAccepted Dec 2021.
Presentations
The Ishaq lab and our collaborators gave virtual presentations this year to scientific audiences, as well as to grade k-12 students, to students and faculty as guest seminars, and as media/news interviews. I particularly enjoyed my chat on “Animal Microbiomes”, hosted by Sheba A-J on the WeTalkScience podcast. Students Emily Pierce, Myra Arshad, Johanna Holman, Joe Balkan, Louisa Colucci, Olivia Choi, Alice Hotopp, Sarah Hosler, and Grace Lee also gave or contributed to presentations in 2021.
Ishaq, S. Introducing the Microbes and Social Equity Working Group: Considering the Microbial Components of Social, Environmental, and Health Justice. inVIVO Planetary Health. virtual. Dec 1 – 7, 2021. (invited)
Holman* J., Ishaq S.L.., Li Y., Zhang T., Balkan J., Colucci L. Prevention of inflammatory bowel disease by broccoli-sourced and microbially-produced bioactives. Video presented at: OHS Student Led Research Panel, UC Davis; Nov 2021.
Arshad*, M., Fludgate, P., Emera Rabee, A., Ishaq, S. “Preliminary results of camel rumen microbial make up”. Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Symposium. (virtual). Oct 25, 2021.
The Microbes and Social Equity Working group, “Special Session 17: “Microbiomes and Social Equity” (19205).”, Ecological Society of America 2021. (virtual). Aug 5, 2021.36.
Ishaq*, S.L., Lee, G., MacRae, J., Hamlin, H., Bouchard, D. “The effect of simulated warming ocean temperatures on the bacterial communities on the shells of healthy and epizootic shell diseased American Lobster (Homarus americanus).” Ecological Society of America 2021. (virtual). Aug 2-6, 2021. (accepted talk)
Hotopp*, A., Silverbrand, S., Ishaq, S.L., Dumont, J., Michaud, A., MacRae, J., Stock, S.P., Groden, E. “Can a necromenic nematode serve as a biological Trojan horse for an invasive ant?” Ecological Society of America 2021. (virtual). Aug 2-6, 2021. (poster)
Pierce*, E., Hosler, S., Ishaq, S. Ideal Conditions for Cryptosporidium Attachment and Infection. UMaine Student Research Symposium (virtual). April 16, 2021. (poster)
Research
2021 has seen varied topics come through the lab, and there’s too much to include here, but I encourage you to check through the Blog page to find older research posts which provide updates.
I’ve been developing a number of aquaculture microbiome projects which are still trying to find funding, as well as continue the data analysis on a lobster shell microbiome dataset that is part of a larger project led by Dr. Deb Bouchard at the Aquaculture Research Institute (one of the researchers on the manuscripts in review and in preparation along with Grace Lee).
One pilot study did get funded, and a collaborative research team at UMaine (Drs. Erin Grey, Jen Perry, Tim Bowden) and the Downeast Institute (Dr. Brian Beal) got a few thousand dollars to collect about 200 samples to generate some data which will help us form a better idea of what’s going on. For that project, we are interested in a particular genus of bacteria, Vibrio, which contains many species that are found in the water or associated with marine animals. Some species of Vibrio can be pathogenic, and the team is curious about which species are present during scallop aquaculture productions, when they are present, and under which circumstances.
Took a break from the massive pile of work I have to go get more Vibrio culture plates from a collaborator. This should keep us busy for awhile! pic.twitter.com/6gpE0h7XG8
This summer and fall also saw a lot of activity on a collaborative project looking at small mammals in Maine and how climate change might be affecting the animals and the microbes they carry. This project has a whole team of undergraduate researchers working together from different labs (Drs. Danielle Levesque, Pauline Kamath, and Jason Johnston at UMPI), and we were poised to collect and measure dozens of animals and process lots of feces. Unfortunately, the mice and flying squirrels we were after outsmarted us and we caught fewer than 20 animals, which is enough for us to test our laboratory methods and streamline our workflow, but not enough from which to draw any conclusions. Even without a lot of data, we still consider the project to be successful because we trained so many students on various aspects of planning and conducting research, we gathered a lot of information from previous publications and are working on a literature review, and we have gained valuable perspective for planning a follow-up to this study.
We (Drs. Yanyan Li and Tao Zhang) are also continuing our collaborative investigations into the gut microbiome related to Inflammatory Bowel Disease using mouse models, looking at how dietary components can be used by gut microbes to produce anti-inflammatory compounds that can help the host reduce the symptoms of colitis. Last December and January we ran a mouse trial that generated hundreds of samples, and we have been processing them all year! Over the fall, our collaborators at the University of Vermont (Dr. Gary Mawe, Molly Hurd, Brigitte Lavoie) ran two more small mouse trials to test some exciting new things. We are hoping to publish the results from both studies in 2022.
Microbes and Social Equity
This was an exceptional year for the Microbes and Social Equity working group, which turned 2 years old in December, and is currently at 120 members plus several dozen newsletter subscribers! We grew so much that is was time to add Directors to the Leadership Team, to support our administration and communication needs.
In spring 2021, I organized a 14-speaker seminar series, which was attended by >300 people, and used for teaching materials at several colleges and universities. This led to a virtual symposium on “Microbes, Social Equity, and Rural Health”, June 14-18th, hosted by MSE and UMaine Medicine. This featured 15 speakers across 5 themed days with 3 plenary-style talks/day, followed by 90 min of small-group discussion led by speakers and MSE members. Participants were encouraged to “problem solve” a suggested topic or one of their own choosing to create action items that were meaningful to them, such as ideas for curricula development, identifying research needs or best practices, suggestions for engaging research in policy, and more.The symposium hosted 254 participants from 22 countries, students and researchers from various fields and career levels, Maine State legislators, and the public.
We have also been leading the development of a journal special collection in mSystems, the scope of which was developed in summer 2020 by select members of the MSE working group, and which has welcomed its first few contributions this year. The inaugural piece was one written by 35 MSE group members which introduced the group, established our mission statement, and outlined our goals.
We hosted a panel discussion at the 2021 Ecological Society for America meeting, and plan to host more conference sessions in 2022. In 2022, we will be hosting a spring seminar series, as well as a summer symposium which is still under development. We’ll be adding the rest of the contributions to the mSystems special collection, and hopefully some collaborative projects! There will also be a few presentations at scientific conferences.
The website gained a phenomenal amount of traffic this year, largely due to MSE, with more than 10,000 visitors and more than 25,000 views! I published more than 50 blog posts, as well as a few dozen more that were advertising events.
Total visitors and views by year.
We had visitors from 125 countries around the globe!
Number of website views per country of origin.
Looking ahead to 2022
I’ll be starting 2022 early with proposal writing, drafting manuscripts, and teaching three classes (I offered to teach the third as overload because we are understaffed). I will be undergoing my third year review this spring, which is a milestone in my tenure-track journey. And, I already have a handful of presentations lined up:
Ishaq, S. ”Microbes at the nexus of environmental, biological, and social research. 2nd Rhode Island Microbiome Symposium, in person, University of Rhode Island Kingston, RI, January 14, 2022. (invited plenary)
Ishaq, S. et al. “TBD” Dartmouth Molecular Microbiology and Pathogenesis (M2P2), February 24-25, 2021.
Ishaq, S. “Moose rumen microbes and you.” The Wildlife Society Nutritional Ecology Working Group Webinar, March 9, 2022.
Ishaq S. Microbes and Social Equity: what is it and how do we do it? Part of Track Hub: ‘Field Work & DEI Part 1: Fostering Equitable Partnerships with the Communities in Your Field Work Location’. American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Microbe 2022, Washington, DC (USA), June 9-13, 2022. (invited)
American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Microbe 2022 special session: “CTS16 (PPS) Cross-Track Symposium: Microbes and Social Equity: the Microbial Components of Social, Environmental, and Health Justice”. Washington, D.C. June 9-13, 2022. Organized by Ishaq, S.L. and featuring Drs. Ari Kozik, Carla Bonilla, and Monica Trujillo.
The Ishaq Lab 