Main Menu

Grand Challenges: Microbiome Sciences

Grant Type: Impact Award
Topics: Global Health and Climate Change
Colleges Represented: CMNS, AGNR, ENGR

Grand Challenges Grants Program
View the Team Website Get Involved
February 4, 2025
Microbiome Social   
4:00 pm, ESJ 2204  
To kick off our spring activities, the Microbiome initiative is hosting a social gathering where  microsocial spring seminars will take place. Snacks will be provided. Hope you can attend and meet other microbiome enthusiasts. 

February 18, 2025
Microbiome Invited Speaker Series  
4:00–5:00 p.m.  Location: ESJ 2204
Speaker: Suzanne E. Dorsey, Deputy Secretary at the Maryland Department of the Environment  
Suzanne Dorsey will share her experience of over 30 years working towards conservation as a scientist and within a governmental agency. Dorsey will reflect back on how regulators might receive ideas that are generated by scientists. She is looking forward to having an open discussion with the audience. Zoom Link

March 4, 2025 
MicroSocial Seminar Series
4:00 pm, ESJ 2204  
Speaker: Darby Steinman, Ph.D. student, Bioengineering 
Speaker: Taiwo Bankole, Ph.D. student, Nutrition and Food Science  
The MicroSocial Seminar Series aims to facilitate scientific exchange and community building across the University of Maryland's microbiome research community. Seminars feature short talks by students and faculty, followed by 30 minutes of informal socializing over coffee and snacks.  
 

March 21, 2025
Microbiome Symposium: Innovation and Translation in Microbiome Research
The Microbiome Sciences initiative is holding its second annual one-day Symposium and Mid-Atlantic Microbiome Meet-up at the University of Maryland, Baltimore on 'Innovation and Translation in Microbiome Research.' Discover the latest advancements in microbiome research & innovation. Connect with leading experts, share your research, & explore new collaborations. Faculty, staff, students are invited to register and submit abstracts and register. 
Submit your abstract by Friday, February 14, 2025  
Register by Saturday, March 1, 2025
Learn more at Innovation and Translation in Microbiome Research | M3: Mid-Atlantic Microbiome Meet-up.
Please contact Gabi Steinbach for more information.

Complex microbial communities (known as microbiomes) inhabit virtually every part of our planet—from ocean depths to mountaintops, across vegetation surfaces, within agricultural soil, and both on and within all living creatures. The Microbiome Sciences initiative joins faculty, postdoctoral scholars and graduate students from across the University of Maryland in pursuit of a deeper understanding of complex microbial communities, and how those microbiomes interact with each other and with our ecosystem.

The initiative will conduct transformative research, develop new technologies, advance microbiome science, and translate microbiome science into innovative interventions and economic growth. Its three-part mission includes:

  1. Advancing cutting-edge and transformative interdisciplinary research in microbiome sciences.
  2. Training future generations of scientists and helping develop a regional workforce with strong expertise in microbiome sciences.
  3. Supporting the development of a regional innovation ecosystem that contributes to economic growth in microbiome-related industries within Maryland.

University of Maryland Microbiome Initiative      University of Maryland Microbiome Initiative

Team Members:


PI: Mihai Pop (CMNS), Professor and Director, Institute for Advanced Computer Studies
Mostafa Ghanem (AGNR), Assistant Professor, Veterinary Medicine
Birthe Kjellerup (ENGR), Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Shirley Micallef (AGNR), Professor, Plant Science and Center for Food Safety and Security Systems
Brantley Hall (CMNS), Assistant Professor, Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics

William Bentley (ENGR), Robert E. Fischell Distinguished Professor, Director, Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices, and Director, Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute
Reza Ghodssi (ENGR), Professor, Herbert Rabin Distinguished Chair in Engineering
Katharina Maisel (ENGR), Assistant Professor, Bioengineering
Stephanie Yarwood (AGNR), Associate Professor, Environmental Science and Technology
Ryan Blaustein (AGNR), Assistant Professor, Nutrition and Food Science

Hannah Zierden (ENGR), Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Margaret Slavin (AGNR), Associate Professor, Nutrition and Food Science
Diana Obanda (AGNR), Assistant Professor, Nutrition and Food Science
Gabi Steinbach (CMNS), Program Coordinator and Associate Research Scientist

Monika Proszkowiec Weglarz, Molecular Biologist, USDA
Jude Maul, Research Ecologist, USDA

Partnerships:

Mid-Atlantic Microbiome Meet-up (M3) Consortium

Back to Top