Events will be hosted January – December, 2024, on the last Friday 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.
“Linking Plant, Animal, and Human Health in Livestock Systems: a Metabolomics Approach.”
Dr. Stephan van Vliet, Phd.
Apr 26, 2024 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time. This event has passed, watch the recording here.
Dr. Stephan van Vliet is a nutrition scientist with metabolomics expertise in the Center for Human Nutrition Studies at Utah State University. Dr. Stephan van Vliet earned his PhD in Kinesiology as an ESPEN Fellow from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and received training at the Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine and Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. van Vliet’s research is performed at the nexus of agricultural and human health. He routinely collaborates with farmers, ecologists, and agricultural scientists to study critical linkages between sustainable agriculture, the nutrient density of food, and human health. His work has been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Scientific Reports, the Journal of Nutrition, and the Journal of Physiology.
Events will be hosted January – December, 2024, on the last Friday 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.
“Linking Plant, Animal, and Human Health in Livestock Systems: a Metabolomics Approach.”
Dr. Stephan van Vliet, Phd.
Apr 26, 2024 12:00 PM Eastern Time. This event has passed, watch the recording here.
Dr. Stephan van Vliet is a nutrition scientist with metabolomics expertise in the Center for Human Nutrition Studies at Utah State University. Dr. Stephan van Vliet earned his PhD in Kinesiology as an ESPEN Fellow from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and received training at the Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine and Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. van Vliet’s research is performed at the nexus of agricultural and human health. He routinely collaborates with farmers, ecologists, and agricultural scientists to study critical linkages between sustainable agriculture, the nutrient density of food, and human health. His work has been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Scientific Reports, the Journal of Nutrition, and the Journal of Physiology.
The Li and Ishaq labs are excited to announce a new literature review on the beneficial compounds in cruciferous vegetables was just published here in Current Developments in Nutrition, led by Tolu Esther Alaba (PhD candidate in GSBSE) and Johanna Holman (soon to be PhD candidate in Microbiology/Nutrition)!!
We’ve been researching the benefits of cruciferous vegetables on health, some of which are available directly from the plants, and some of which require the participation of certain bacteria that live in our gut. Cruciferous vegetables are loaded with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and – what we are most interested in – the plant’s secondary compounds called glucosinolates which can be transformed into antioxidants and anti-inflammatories. Depending on the type of vegetable, and the way that it is cooked/prepared, you can end up with different types and quantities of these beneficial compounds. We are interested in how to target benefits to certain locations in the gut by inducing the gut microbiome to participate in making these compounds available to us (Figure below). The review consolidated the existing literature on cruciferous vegetables in regards to the glucosinolates and reducing inflammation in the gut.
Cruciferous vegetables or their purified compounds can ameliorate inflammatory symptoms through multiple pathways. Graphic designed by Johanna Holman.
Tolu Esther Alaba is a PhD Candidate in the GSBSE program at UMaine. Her research has focused on antioxidants in fruits and vegetables which can be used to resolve inflammation, oxidative stress, injury, cardiometabolic and chronic diseases. Since joining #TeamBroccoli in the fall of 2023, she’s completed data analyses on gut metabolites and broccoli sprouts in mice and humans, and began drafting several manuscripts, in addition to writing this literature review. Tolu plans to defend her dissertation this summer, and we hope to bring her back to the Ishaq and Li labs as a postdoctoral researcher focusing on dietary habits, cruciferous vegetable intake, and dietary metabolomics!
Johanna Holman is a PhD student in the Nutrition/Microbiology programs. She began working on broccoli sprouts with Drs. Tao Zhang and Yanyan Li over 6 years ago as a research assistant. She joined the Ishaq lab in fall 2020 as a master’s student to investigate the effects of diet on the gut microbiome, and host-microbial interactions, as part of an ongoing collaboration with Tao and Yanyan Li, and graduated with her M.S. in nutrition science in the fall of 2022. Her research combines nutritional biochemistry of broccoli sprouts with effects on gut microbes and gastrointestinal inflammation, and spans biochemistry, microbiology, molecular biology, and incorporates a handful of undergraduate mentees every semester. Johanna also just created a website for Imaginome Designs, her graphic design portfolio!!
Yanyan Li, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at SUNY Binghamton, and has been researching the nutritional biochemistry of broccoli sprouts for over a decade. Yanyan and Sue, along with Johanna, Tolu, and the rest of Team Broccoli have been collaborating on diet-microbe-health projects for the last 5 years!
Authors: Tolu E. Alaba1, Johanna M. Holman2 , Suzanne L. Ishaq2 , Yanyan Li2,3
Affiliations: 1 Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA 04469; 2 School of Food and Agriculture, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA 04469; 3 School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, SUNY Binghamton University, Johnson City, New York, USA 13790
Abstract
Inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic condition with a significant economic and social burden. The disease is complex and challenging to treat because it involves several pathologies, such as inflammation, oxidative stress, dysbiosis, and intestinal damage. The search for an effective treatment has identified cruciferous vegetables and their phytochemicals as potential management options for inflammatory bowel disease, as they contain prebiotics, probiotics, and anti-inflammatory and antioxidant metabolites essential for a healthy gut. This critical narrative style review provides a robust insight into the pharmacological effects and benefits of crucifers and their documented bioactive compounds in in vitro and in vivo models, as well as clinical inflammatory bowel disease. The review highlights the significant impact of crucifer preparation and the presence of glucosinolates, isothiocyanates, flavonoids, and polyphenolic compounds, which are essential for the anti-inflammatory and antioxidative benefits of cruciferous vegetables, as well as their ability to promote the healthy microbial community and maintain the intestinal barrier. This review may serve as a viable nutritional guide for future research on methods and features essential to developing experiments, preventions, and treatments for inflammatory bowel disease. There is limited clinical information and future research may utilize current innovative tools, such as metabolomics, for adequate knowledge and effective translation into clinical therapy.
Acknowlegements
This project was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture through the Maine Agricultural & Forest Experiment Station: Hatch Project Numbers ME022102 and ME022329 (Ishaq) and ME022303 (Li); and the National Institute of Health [Li and Ishaq; NIH/NIDDK 1R15DK133826-01], and the Allen Foundation [Li and Ishaq, #5409406]. Financial sponsors had no role in study design, data interpretation, or report writing.
The UMaine Student Symposium is an annual event featuring research presentations from undergraduate and graduate students, and is a way to share student research on campus and with the Maine public.
All of the abstracts for the full program, and previous years, are available here.
The event is free to attend, and will take place at the New Balance Field House on the UMaine Orono Campus, Friday April 12, 2024.
Several students from the Ishaq Lab will be presenting their ongoing work:
Early Life Broccoli Sprout Consumption Confers Stronger Protection Against Enterocolitis in an Immunological Mouse Model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Author(s): Lola Holcomb, Johanna Holman, Sue Ishaq.
Type: poster presentation
Submission category: Biomedical sciences
Abstractnumber 1001: Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) are chronic conditions characterized by inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract that heavily burden daily life, result in surgery or other complications, and disrupt the gut microbiome. How IBD influences gut microbial ecology, especially biogeographic patterns of microbial location, and how the gut microbiota can use diet components and microbial metabolites to mediate disease, are still poorly understood. This study aimed to resolve such questions. Many studies on diet and IBD in mice use a chemically induced ulcerative colitis model, despite the availability of an immune-modulated Crohn’s Disease model. Interleukin-10-knockout (IL-10-KO) mice on a C57BL/6 background, beginning at age 4 or 7 weeks, were fed either a control diet or one containing 10% (w/w) raw broccoli sprouts which was high in the sprout-sourced anti-inflammatory sulforaphane. Diets began 7 days prior to inoculation with Helicobacter hepaticus, which triggers Crohn’s-like symptoms in these immune-impaired mice, and ran for two additional weeks. Key findings of this study suggest that the broccoli sprout diet increases sulforaphane concentration in plasma; decreases weight stagnation, fecal blood, and diarrhea associated with enterocolitis; and increases microbiota richness in the gut, especially in younger mice. Sprout diets resulted in some anatomically specific bacterial communities in younger mice, and reduced the prevalence and abundance of potentially pathogenic or otherwise-commensal bacteria which trigger inflammation in the IL-10 deficient mouse, for example, Escherichia coli and Helicobacter. Overall, the IL-10-KO mouse model is responsive to a raw broccoli sprout diet and represents an opportunity for more diet-host-microbiome research.
Lola’s poster from the CIMM 2024 meeting.
Steamed Broccoli Sprouts Alleviate Gut Inflammation and Retain Gut Microbiota Against DSS-induced Dysbiosis.
Author(s): Johanna Holman, Lola Holcomb, Sue Ishaq.
Type: oral presentation, 9:45 am
Submission Category: Biomedical Sciences
Abstract number 1002: Inflammatory bowel diseases are devastating conditions of the gastrointestinal tract with limited treatments, and dietary intervention may be effective, affordable, and safe for managing symptoms. Research has identified inactive compounds in broccoli sprouts that may be metabolized by the gut microbiota into key anti-inflammatories. Our research set out to identify biogeographic locations of participating microbiota and correlate that to health outcomes. We fed specific pathogen free C57BL/6 mice either a control diet or a 10% steamed broccoli sprout diet, and gave a three-cycle regimen of 2.5% dextran sulfate sodium in drinking water over 40 days to simulate ulcerative colitis. We monitored body weight, fecal characteristics and lipocalin, and sequenced bacterial communities from the contents and mucosa of the jejunum, cecum, and colon. Mice fed the broccoli sprout diet while receiving dextran sulfate sodium performed better than mice fed control diet for all disease parameters, including increased weight gain (2-way ANOVA, p < 0.05), lower Disease Activity Index scores (2-way ANOVA, p < 0.001), and higher bacterial richness (linear regression model, p < 0.01). Bacterial communities were assorted by gut location except in the mice receiving the control diet and colitis-inducing treatment (Beta-diversity, ANOVA, p < 0.05). Importantly, our results suggest that broccoli sprouts abrogated the effects of dextran sulfate sodium on the gut microbiota, that colitis erases biogeographical patterns of bacterial communities, and that the cecum is not likely to be a contributor to colonic bacteria of interest, in a mouse model of ulcerative colitis.
Johanna’s poster from the ASN 2023 meeting.
Using Steamed Broccoli Sprouts to Better Understand Bacterial Glucosinolate Metabolism
Abstract number 418: Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) lead to dysfunction of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, resulting in disruption to overall health. These diseases can affect people of all ages and are present on a global scale. Research has demonstrated that diets high in cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, are associated with decreases in GI inflammation. Broccoli contains glucoraphanin, which through metabolism by gut bacteria, can become an anti-inflammatory compound, sulforaphane. Recent research has validated the use of steamed broccoli sprouts in the diet of mice to reduce inflammation and resolve symptoms of IBD. Isolated microbiota samples obtained from various locations in the GI of these mice are being investigated for the presence of glucoraphanin-metabolizing genes from a common gut bacteria, Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (B. theta). Similar analyses being conducted on human fecal samples from individuals who consumed steamed broccoli sprouts for 28 days have demonstrated decreases in the presence of B. theta. This result was not anticipated and has strengthened beliefs that B. theta is not the primary species performing glucoraphanin metabolism, thus prompting further analyses of the fecal samples from mice and humans for glucoraphanin-metabolizing genes of other common GI bacteria. Genomes of isolates from the gut of mice which have high quantities of glucoraphanin-metabolizing genes will be sequenced for identification. This information will help to identify potential bacterial candidates for future research on probiotic development.
A collaborative team of researchers (Drs. Kieran O’Doherty, Rob Beiko, Sue Ishaq, Emma Allen-Vercoe, Mallory Choudoir, and Diego Silva – check out their biographies below) has been awarded funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) for a four-year project on how our collective microbiomes (the diverse microbes we share between humans and our environments) impact health!!
Microbiome scientists have increasingly been demonstrating the importance of microbial ecologies for human and environmental health. In spite of this, no protections are in place on policy levels to ensure the health of microbiomes, which in turn are the foundation of larger ecosystems. We built this team of bioethicists (Kieran and Diego), bioinformaticians (Rob), host microbial ecologists (Sue and Emma), and soil microbial ecologists (Mallory), with the purpose of developing a framework and definition for microbiome stewardship, guiding principles for its implementation, and tools for assessment. We hope this could serve as a starting point for developing public policy around conservation of natural and built environments in ways that promote long-term health of everyone – people, plants, animals, microbes, and the planet.
What is “microbiome stewardship”?
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 importance of the human microbiome (the bacteria, fungi, archaea, protozoa, and viruses that we directly and indirectly interact with throughout our lives) for health and well-being has been well established. However, despite their demonstrated impact, there is limited information on the interconnectivity of non-host habitats (e.g., the built environment or other less intensively managed environments) and their collective contributions to human health. This includes interactions across scales such as with others in shared spaces, cultural and dietary practices, food systems and industrialized food processes, natural environments, built environments, and air pollution.
The concept of the collective microbiome reinforces the idea of microbiomes as a public good from which all humans, plants, and animals derive benefit. Deterioration of the collective microbiome, and the increasing prevalence of microbiome dysbiosis in humans and elsewhere, is the least well-understood but the most-important facet of biodiversity loss and ecosystem health decline. Microbiome stewardship recognizes the necessity of microbial communities in sustaining human health, and emphasizes the imperative to protect them through policy and other action. Recognizing the importance of microbiome stewardship is a critical step, but we also lack the clear articulation needed to guide its implementation in policy and practice. We need a broadly applicable and inclusive definition of microbiome stewardship, a framework that can guide principles for implementation, and tools to assess microbiome health and to support informed decision making.
Meet the Team
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. Sue Ishaq, PhD., is an Assistant Professor of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, 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, 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, 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.
Principal Investigator: Kieran O’Doherty, University of Guelph
co-Principal Investigators: Rob Beiko, Dalhousie University; Suzanne Ishaq, University of Maine.
co-Investigators: Emma Allen-Vercoe, University of Guelph; Mallory Choudoir, North Carolina State University; Diego Silva, The University of Sydney School of Public Health.
Funding agency: Canadian Institute for Health Research
Abstract
The human microbiome is essential for healthy human development and immunity, and maintaining its health is a collective activity. In Canada and worldwide, there is increasing prevalence of chronic illnesses attributed to dysbiosis of human microbiomes. The causes for microbiome dysbiosis vary. In part, the constitution of the human microbiome depends on genetic factors and personal lifestyle choices, such as diet and exercise. To a large extent, however, individuals’ and collective microbiomes are shaped by environmental factors including natural environments, built environments, food systems, air and other pollutants, and the microbiomes of other people and animals around us. Microbes, by their nature, are shared across humans, and between humans and the environments in which we live. Although our decisions as individuals may have some impact, it is mainly our actions as a society that shape macro-social influences such as environmental pollution, industrial food production, and guidelines for anti-biotic use, all of which profoundly affect human microbiomes. This suggests that we need a collective vision or principles that would act to coordinate and guide societal efforts to ensure healthy microbiome environments. In 2014 an interdisciplinary group of scholars proposed the concept of microbiome stewardship to recognise our shared microbial environment as a common good that needs to be protected. Although this was an important first step, the notion of microbiome stewardship needs to be developed in much more detail to be useful in guiding policy and practice. The purpose of this project is to develop an authoritative definition of microbiome stewardship, to develop guiding principles for its implementation, and to develop a framework for its assessment. We will use a series of interviews, workshops, and deliberative processes to engage a wide range of experts and stakeholders to develop a sustainable and comprehensive articulation of microbiome stewardship.
Events will be hosted January – December, 2024, on the last Friday 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.
Dr. Sonny Lee, PhD., Assistant Professor at Kansas State University, is an integrative microbiologist, with his work grounded in the field of microbiology, ecology and molecular biology with application to promote pro-health in human host, agricultural and the environment. His research relies heavily on bioinformatics, microbiological and molecular techniques to elucidate the mechanism of microbial populations in the contribution to the well-being of the host. His lab investigates the diversity and mechanism of the microbial population by looking at the microbiome as a whole holobiont, while using a reductionist approach in elucidating the role microbial populations play in maintaining the homeostasis of the microbiome.
Events will be hosted January – December, 2024, on the last Friday 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.
Dr. Sonny Lee, PhD., Assistant Professor at Kansas State University, is an integrative microbiologist, with his work grounded in the field of microbiology, ecology and molecular biology with application to promote pro-health in human host, agricultural and the environment. His research relies heavily on bioinformatics, microbiological and molecular techniques to elucidate the mechanism of microbial populations in the contribution to the well-being of the host. His lab investigates the diversity and mechanism of the microbial population by looking at the microbiome as a whole holobiont, while using a reductionist approach in elucidating the role microbial populations play in maintaining the homeostasis of the microbiome.
I was invited to give three talks on the west coast in March, which aligned so well I was able to string them together into a mini “speaking tour”. I was looking forward to seeing work-related and non-work-related friends, and using a few of the days to visit more of the incredible ecosystems.
Grove of the Titans in the Redwood National Forest.
I presented three versions of a talk called “Place and time matter for gut microbes making anti-inflammatories from broccoli sprouts”, to tailor it to the audiences and time slots at each location. The talk incorporated various amounts of the #BroccoliProject and work with the Microbes and Social Equity working group.
Lola Holcomb and Tolu Alaba, both PhD candidates working on broccoli sprouts and gut microbes, presented posters at CIMM. This conference features microbiome research in the contexts of health, agriculture, and environments.
A sunset in La Jolla.The view from La Jolla cliffs.Jotham Suez and I found time to check out the cherry blossoms at the Japanese Friendship Garden.Lola Holcomb presented her work on broccoli sprouts and Crohn’s Disease models.Tolu Alaba with her poster on metabolomics and new baby!
I presented my research and my work on the Microbes and Social Equity working group to students, faculty, and the DEI committee.
The views of Puget Sound are beautiful.There are glass sculptures in the garden near the base of the side needle.I visited the incredible Chihuly Glass Museum.Sean Gibbons and I went to the opening night of One Thousand Pieces.
Ayodeji Olaniyi defended his Master’s of Animal Science thesis today!! His project focused on cultures of bacteria that were isolated from the biofilms in scallop larvae hatchery tanks, to understand how they might be impacting larvae or microbial community dynamics in the tank. This was part of a series of studies and a larger collaboration on scallop health in Maine. He has previously presented at the 2024 NACE/MAS aquaculture conference for which he won a travel award from the UMaine Aquaculture research Insitute, and the 2023 UMaine Student Research Symposium where he won an award for his poster.
He is originally from Nigeria, where he studied animal science and gathered a lot of practical experience in animal production and proper farm maintenance. He obtained a Bachelor of Science from Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta, Nigeria, and worked as a veterinary assistant and as a technical advisor at AlphaSage services, in Ibadan, Nigeria.
He joined my lab in early 2022 to increase his technical research skills, and has been investigating the bacteria isolated from biofilms associated with different scallop hatchery tank systems. Last year, he won a UMaine Student Symposium Poster award for presenting this work, and a travel award from the UMaine Aquaculture Research Institute Rapid Response Fund to present this work at the recent NACE/MAS conference.
He has already begun the next phase of his career, as he started working as a research technician at a health lab in Indiana, where he has been combining his microbiology and animal health skills with molecular genetics, and adding to the list of animal systems he has worked with. And, his thirst for knowledge is still growing – we can’t wait to see where his passion for research takes him!
Events will be hosted January – December, 2024, on the last Friday 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.
Professor Jack A Gilbert earned his Ph.D. from Unilever and Nottingham University, UK in 2002, and received his postdoctoral training at Queens University, Canada. From 2005-2010 he was a senior scientist at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, UK; and from 2010-2018 he was Group Leader for Microbial Ecology at Argonne National Laboratory, a Professor of Surgery, and Director of The Microbiome Center at University of Chicago. In 2019 he moved to University of California San Diego, where he is a Professor in Pediatrics and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Associate Vice Chancellor for Marine Science, and Director of both the Microbiome and Metagenomics Center and the Microbiome Core Facility. Dr. Gilbert uses molecular analysis to test fundamental hypotheses in microbial ecology.
He cofounded the Earth Microbiome Project and American Gut Project. He has authored more than 450 peer reviewed publications and book chapters on microbial ecology. He is the founding Editor in Chief of mSystems journal. In 2014 he was recognized on Crain’s Business Chicago’s 40 Under 40 List, and in 2015 he was listed as one of the 50 most influential scientists by Business Insider, and in the Brilliant Ten by Popular Scientist. In 2016 he won the Altemeier Prize from the Surgical Infection Society, and the WH Pierce Prize from the Society for Applied Microbiology for research excellence. In 2017 he co-authored “Dirt is Good”, a popular science guide to the microbiome and children’s health. In 2018, he founded BiomeSense Inc to produce automated microbiome sensors. In 2021 Dr Gilbert became the UCSD PI for the National institutes of Health’s $175M Nutrition for Precision Medicine program. In 2023 he became President of Applied Microbiology International, and won the 2023 IFF Microbiome Science Prize.
The Ishaq Lab 