Grand Challenges: Microbiome Sciences

September 9, 2025
MicroSocial Seminar Series
Location: IRB 4105
Speaker: Raunak Dey, Ph.D. student, Physics
Talk: "Learning Microbial and Viral Traits From Dynamics"
Speaker: Claire Barlow, Ph.D. student, Global Environmental & Occupational Health
Talk: "Antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Isolated From Homes Impacted by Sewage and Flooding Events"

September 23, 2025
Microbiome Sciences Invited Speaker Series:
Speaker: CS Raman, Ph.D., University of Maryland, Baltimore School of Pharmacy
3:30 p.m., Biosciences Research Building 1103

October 7, 2025
MicroSocial Seminar Series
3:30 p.m., Biosciences Research Building 1103
Speakers:
Erin Harrelson, Ph.D. student, Nutrition and Food Science
Nakia Fallen, Ph.D. student, Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics

November 4, 2025
Microbiome Sciences
MicroSocial Seminar Series Invited Speaker Series, 3:30–4:30 p.m., Location: BRB 1103
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.
Speaker: Yue Jang, Ph.D. student in Nutrition and Food Science
Talk Title: "Maternal Broccoli Sprout Supplementation Mitigates Offspring Obesity Risk via Multiomic Modulation of Gut Microbiota, Metabolites, and Gene Expression"
Speaker: Darby Steinman, Ph.D. student in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering
Talk Title: "Vaginal Bacterial Extracellular Vesicles Diffuse through Cervicovaginal Mucus to Interact with Host Cells"

November 18, 2025
Microbiome Sciences
MicroSocial Seminar Series Invited Speaker Series, 3:30–4:30 p.m., Location: BRB 1103
The MicroSocial Seminar Series aims to facilitate scientific exchange and community building across the University of Maryland's microbiome research community.
Speaker: Jasna Kovac, Professor of Food Safety, Pennsylvania State University
Talk Title: "Understanding Pathogen Survival and Persistence Through the Lens of Microbiomes in Food Systems"

December 2, 2025
Microbiome Sciences
MicroSocial Seminar Series Invited Speaker Series, 3:30–4:30 p.m., Location: BRB 1103
Speakers: Ingrid Dukundane, a Ph.D. student in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering; and Yuzhu Mao, a Ph.D. student in environmental engineering

December 15, 2025

Microbiome Capstone Panel, 3:30–5:00 p.m., 2460 A.V. Williams

The Microbiome Capstone Panel, titled “Microbial Matters: Translating Microbiome Science to Maximize Impact in Public Health, will mark the conclusion of the eight-month Student Fellowship program. The purpose of the panel is to translate the current breadth of microbiome research into actionable knowledge for public health and societal progress. It aims to foster open, interactive dialogue among experts in diverse areas of the health sciences, including startups, education and clinical domains. A zoom link to attend the panel virtually will eventually be available. RSVP here to attend in person.

March 20, 2026
Annual M3 Microbiome Symposium
The annual meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Microbiome Meet-up (M3) initiative aims to enable and spur interactions within the very broad community of scientists interested in microbiome within the Mid-Atlantic region, including academia, government, and industry participants alike. Visit the Microbiome website 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:

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

University of Maryland Microbiome Initiative

Human Health Advancement

Key participants: Birthe Kjellerup (lead), Ryan Blaustein, Brantley Hall, Katharina Maisel, Shirley Micallef, Margaret Slavin, Magaly Toro, and Hannah Zierden

Researchers in the Center study the impact of microbial communities on human health along a broad set of dimensions. Projects include research on human nutrition, food safety, biomimetic therapies, and wastewater surveillance.

Environmental and Agricultural Innovation

Key participants: Stephanie Yarwood (lead), Ryan Blaustein, Mostafa Ghanem, Birthe Kjellerup, Shirley Micallef and Magaly Toro

Research in this space focuses on the complex interactions, mediated by microbes, between agricultural and environmental systems. Some examples of projects include studies of soil microbial ecology and function, bioremediation of pollutants, the interaction between urban farming and food safety, and the protection of poultry from pathogens.

Technology Development

Key participants: Mihai Pop (lead), Bill Bentley, Brantley Hall, Reza Ghodssi, Huang Lin, Katharina Maisel, Sara Molinari, and Hannah Zierden

A unique feature of our center is the strong focus on the development of new technologies for extracting and analyzing data from microbial communities and for engineering microbial systems. This research includes the development of new sensing modalities, methods for engineering microbiome systems, and novel computational and statistical analysis methods.

Quantitative Microbial Dynamics and Ecosystems

Key participants: Joshua Weitz (lead), Huang Lin, and Mihai Pop

The way in which a microbiome is shaped by the complex interactions between its members, and by the interactions between the microbiome and its environment or host, cannot be effectively understood without the development of complex mathematical models of genome evolution and system dynamics. Some of the research performed in the center, for example, explores the way in which the complex interactions between phages (viruses that infect bacteria) and microbes can be used to treat antibiotic-resistant infections.

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	Sara Molinari (ENGR), Assistant Professor, Bioengineering
Huang Lin (SPHL), Assistant Professor, Biostatistics	Magaly Toro (JIFSAN), Director, Center for Food Safety and Security Systems	Norberto Gonzalez-Juarbe (CMNS), Assistant Professor of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics
Monika Proszkowiec Weglarz, Molecular Biologist, USDA	Jude Maul, Research Ecologist, USDA

Partnerships:

Mid-Atlantic Microbiome Meet-up (M3) Consortium