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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

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"

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:

  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

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