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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
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October 15, 2024
MicroSocial Seminar Series
"Multimodal Inference of Virus-microbe Infection Networks and Microbial Interactions from Population Dynamics," Speaker: Raunak Dey, Ph.D student, Physics  
"A Comparison of Daidzein-Metabolizing Phenotypes and its Relationship to Cardiovascular Disease Risk," Speaker: Holly Childs, Ph.D student, Nutrition & Food Science  
This monthly series takes place on Tuesdays from 4:00–5:00 p.m. Location: ESJ 1224  
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. 

November 12, 2024
MicroSocial Seminar Series
4:00 p.m.,  Location: ESJ 1224  
Talk: "Electrochemical Detection of Gastrointestinal Serotonin Toward Understanding the Gut Brain Axis," Sydney Overton, Ph.D. student, electrical engineering               
Talk: "Exploration of the Upper Respiratory Tract Microbiome and Probiotic Interventions In Chickens," Madhusudan Timilsina, Ph.D. student, veterinary medicine  

March 21, 2025
Microbiome Symposium
The Microbiome Sciences initiative is holding its second annual one-day symposium at the University of Baltimore. The team is looking for student, postdoc, and/or faculty volunteers to help with organizing the symposium. Please contact Gabi Steinbach or Mihai Pop to indicate interest.

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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