Introducing the Bimonthly Microbiome Newsletter

Welcome to the first edition of the UMD Center of Excellence in Microbiome Sciences bimonthly newsletter, with the purpose of sharing information and resources from across the University of Maryland microbiome research community. To have your research, events, or other resources included, contact the center's program coordinator Gabi Steinbach at gabis@umd.edu.

News

Hall Receives $3.5M in Federal Funding for Innovative Gut Microbiome Research

Brantley Hall's NIH funding will support his work to characterize microbial enzymes and develop novel wearable devices for monitoring gut health.

Safeguarding Our Salads From the Roots Up

Shirley Micallef is taking on the E. Coli contamination of produce by conducting microbial research with recently published results in Frontiers in Plant Science.

FDA-Funded Study Could Lead to Advances in Fight Against Endometriosis

Hannah Zierden’s work will establish important benchmarks and advance medical devices for women’s reproductive health.

People Spotlight

Meet Gabi Steinbach, an associate research scientist in the Department of Biology and the center’s new program coordinator. A biophysicist by training with experience in biofilms and microbial interactions, Gabi has a passion for creating programs that foster interdisciplinary research. She is excited to initiate activities for the center that will strengthen the microbiome research community at UMD, facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations, and develop new training programs. Reach out to Gabi with your questions or ideas: gabis@umd.edu

Center Events

Introducing the MicroSocial Seminar Series

The MicroSocial Seminar Series aims to facilitate scientific exchange and community building across UMD's microbiome research community. Seminars will feature short talks by students and faculty, followed by 30 minutes of informal socializing over coffee and snacks. If you're looking to present your research, get feedback on results, or find collaborators, contact Gabi Steinbach to be added to the MicroSocial Seminar Series schedule. This monthly series takes place on Tuesdays from 4–5 p.m.

Date: Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Time: 4–5 p.m.

Location: ESJ 1224

Speaker: Raunak Dey, Ph.D student, Physics

Talk: "Multimodal Inference of Virus-microbe Infection Networks and Microbial Interactions from Population Dynamics"

Speaker: Holly Childs, Ph.D student, Nutrition & Food Science

Talk: "A Comparison of Daidzein-Metabolizing Phenotypes and its Relationship to Cardiovascular Disease Risk"

Save the Date:

Tuesday, November 12 at 4 p.m. in ESJ 1224

Tuesday, December 10 at 4 p.m. in BRB 1103

Other Resources

UMD Talk

Speaker: Janet Hering, Professor Emeritus, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science & Technology Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

Talk: "Bridging the Gap Between Knowing and Doing for Environmental Problems"

When: Tuesday, October 1 at 3 p.m.

Location: Glenn L. Martin Hall 1179, University of Maryland

Conference

West Coast Bacterial Physiologists Annual Asilomar Meeting

When: December 13–15, 2024

Location: Pacific Grove, California

Deadlines: October 30 for registration and November 20 for abstracts

Learn more about the conference including trainee financial support.

Call for Feedback on STREAMS

The Standards for Technical Reporting in Environmental and host-Associated Microbiome Studies (STREAMS) is soliciting feedback on their draft guidelines until October 14th. These standards will be presented to the community via a manuscript. Feedback can be submitted through this Google form. If you would like to be listed as a co-author to acknowledge your contributions to the guidelines, add your authorship information here. To further participate, join the slack group or bi-weekly working group meetings on Fridays at 2 p.m. by emailing streamsmicrobiome@gmail.com.