I recently sat down with Ashley Hagen, who hosts the Meet the Microbiologist podcast at the American Society for Microbiology, to talk about my collaborative research on broccoli sprouts, anti-inflammatories, and gut microbes! Watch the video or listen to the podcast here!

Events will be hosted January - December, 2025, usually on the last Wednesday of every month, 12:00 - 14:00 pm ET. Presented over Zoom. After each talk, we will continue the discussions in an informal social meeting with MSE. All speakers and members of the audience are welcome to join the social meeting. Hosted by: Sue Ishaq, MSE, and finacially supported by the University of Maine Institute of Medicine and the UMaine Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Committee.

The One Health concept underscores the fundamental connections among humans, animals, and the environment. Microbial communities lie at the heart of these interactions, sustaining both public health a...

Events will be hosted January - December, 2025, usually on the last Wednesday of every month, 12:00 - 14:00 pm ET. Presented over Zoom. After each talk, we will continue the discussions in an informal social meeting with MSE. All speakers and members of the audience are welcome to join the social meeting. Hosted by: Sue Ishaq, MSE, and finacially supported by the University of Maine Institute of Medicine and the UMaine Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Committee.

Events will be hosted January - December, 2025, usually on the last Wednesday of every month, 12:00 - 14:00 pm ET. Presented over Zoom. After each talk, we will continue the discussions in an informal social meeting with MSE. All speakers and members of the audience are welcome to join the social meeting. Hosted by: Sue Ishaq, MSE, and finacially supported by the University of Maine Institute of Medicine and the UMaine Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Committee.

I'm thrilled and humbled to announce that the Microbes and Social Equity Working Group (MSE) has been named as the team winner of the Dorothy Jones Diversity & Inclusion Achievement Award from Applied Microbiology International (AMI), the oldest microbiology society in the UK!!! Here's the AMI press release! The prize is part of the Applied Microbiology International Horizon Awards 2025, which celebrate the brightest minds in the field and promote the research, group, projects, products and individuals who continue to help shape the future of applied microbiology.

We’re thrilled to share that Dr. Lola Holcomb, who recently completed her PhD in Biomedical Science at the University of Maine, will be joining Dr. Eben Estell’s lab at the University of New England as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow! Dr. Estell is a new faculty member starting up a lab developing tissue engineered models for bone mechanobiology, and this position will focus on data analysis and conceptual models on how cells interact with mechanical structures, to create better medical treatments.

Events will be hosted January - December, 2025, usually on the last Wednesday of every month, 12:00 - 14:00 pm ET. Presented over Zoom. After each talk, we will continue the discussions in an informal social meeting with MSE. All speakers and members of the audience are welcome to join the social meeting. Hosted by: Sue Ishaq, MSE, and finacially supported by the University of Maine Institute of Medicine and the UMaine Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Committee.

Since the summer of 2023, I have been part of an interdisciplinary team that examines the way microbiome researchers use social and population descriptors for people in their analysis. In many cases, only basic information about a person is available in large datasets that are publicly available to use, or detailed information about a person is difficult to obtain during a study, thus many researchers rely on "proxy terms" to try and understand how human microbiomes are assembled and changed.

Events will be hosted January - December, 2025, usually on the last Wednesday of every month, 12:00 - 14:00 pm ET. Presented over Zoom. After each talk, we will continue the discussions in an informal social meeting with MSE. All speakers and members of the audience are welcome to join the social meeting. Hosted by: Sue Ishaq, MSE, and finacially supported by the University of Maine Institute of Medicine and the UMaine Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Committee.

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

ASM statement on Supreme Court ruling in American Public Health Association v. NIH that permits the Administration to cancel nearly $800 million in NIH grants.

Congratulations to Alexis Kirkendall, PhD candidate in the Microbiology Program, for passing her comprehensive exam!! The exam involved writing a research proposal on a topic outside of her main focus, and presenting her idea for an hour to her faculty committee, who then asked detailed questions about her work and understanding of this research for almost two hours. Over the next two or three years, her dissertation research will focus on culturing bacteria that we…

Events will be hosted January - December, 2025, on the last Wednesday of every month, 12:00 - 14:00 pm ET. Presented over Zoom. After each talk, we will continue the discussions in an informal social meeting with MSE. All speakers and members of the audience are welcome to join the social meeting. Hosted by: Sue Ishaq, MSE, and finacially supported by the University of Maine Institute of Medicine and the UMaine Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Committee.

Summary reposted from the MSE newsletter, now hosted by AMI! Subscribe to the newletter or join the group here. MSE recently hosted its 5th annual summit, this year dedicated to exploring the concept of Microbiome Stewardship. Microbiome Stewardship is a concept that is intended to provide guiding insights, articulate responsibilities, and suggest practices aimed at maintaining microbial biodiversity and microbiome functioning across microbial habitats, which, in turn, supports the health and well-being of humans, animals, plants, and ecosystems.

Program details and free registration can be found here.  Please note, the webinars and the workshop each require registration to help us manage attendance. Who should attend? Students, and professionals from any discipline, are encouraged to attend! The summit is highly interdisciplinary and we welcome diverse perspectives: research presentation and workshop activities represent microbiome, ethics, health, food systems, ecology, and environmental sciences, and more!

The University of Maine is a community of more than 11,900 undergraduate and graduate students, and 2,500 employees located on the Orono campus, the regional campus in Machias, and throughout the stat...

Events will be hosted January - December, 2025, on the last Wednesday of every month, 12:00 - 14:00 pm ET. Presented over Zoom. After each talk, we will continue the discussions in an informal social meeting with MSE. All speakers and members of the audience are welcome to join the social meeting. Hosted by: Sue Ishaq, MSE, and finacially supported by the University of Maine Institute of Medicine and the UMaine Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Committee.

Program details and free registration can be found here.  Please note, the webinars and the workshop each require registration to help us manage attendance. Who should attend? Students, and professionals from any discipline, are encouraged to attend! The summit is highly interdisciplinary and we welcome diverse perspectives: research presentation and workshop activities represent microbiome, ethics, health, food systems, ecology, and environmental sciences, and more!

Transgender and gender nonconforming (TGnC) people are a primary target of the Trump administration. Multiple executive orders seek to erase TGnC protections; mandate denial of gender identity; and ba...