Events | Center of Excellence in Microbiome Sciences

The MicroSocial Seminar Series aims to facilitate scientific exchange and community building across UMD’s microbiome research community. Monthly seminars feature UMD speakers, including students and faculty, who give short research presentations (either 2 x 12 minutes or 1 x 20 minute talks) followed by a social happy 1/2 hour over coffee and snacks. We welcome presentations about in-progress work or recent results, with the goal to provide an overview, receive feedback, promote opportunities for collaboration, or identify community interests and needs that the center may address. Open to all of UMD, the monthly seminar takes place on Tuesdays from 4–5 p.m.

To present at the MicroSocial Seminar Series, please contact Gabi Steinbach (gabis@umd.edu) to be added to the schedule.

Fall 2024 Schedule

Date	Speakers	Talk Title	Location
October 15	Raunak Dey, Ph.D. student, Physics Holly Childs, Ph.D. student, Nutrition & Food Science	“Multimodal Inference of Virus-microbe Infection Networks and Microbial Interactions from Population Dynamics” “A Comparison of Daidzein-Metabolizing Phenotypes and its Relationship to Cardiovascular Disease Risk”	ESJ 1224
November 12	Sydney Overton, Ph.D. student, Electrical & Computer Engineering Madhusudan Timilsina, Ph.D. student, Veterinary Medicine	“Electrochemical Detection of Gastrointestinal Serotonin Toward Understanding the Gut Brain Axis” “Exploration of the Upper Respiratory Tract Microbiome and Probiotic Interventions In Chickens”	ESJ 1224
December 10	Robert Kirian, Ph.D. student, Bioengineering Lora Cheng, Ph.D. student, Environmental Engineering	“Biocalorimetry to Predict Bacterial Extracellular Vesicle (bEV) Production and Improve Biomanufacturing” “New Horizons in Microbial Dynamics within Anaerobic Bioremediation Systems”	BRB 1103

Invited Speaker Series

The Microbiome Invited Speaker Series features speakers from academia, industry, non-profit organizations, public communities, and federal agencies that promote the role of microbiome in a One Health context, ranging from sustainability, restoration, and public health. The series facilitates knowledge exchange between UMD and local experts in human and environmental microbiome research, with the long-term goal of establishing impact-driven collaborations in microbiome-focused initiatives.

Talk: BLAST to the Future: A Story of Sequences in Biology

Speaker: David J. Lipman, senior science advisor for bioinformatics and genomics at the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition

Abstract: The kinds of questions we study with DNA and amino acid sequence data have evolved alongside advances in biological knowledge and sequencing technology. This presentation traces the historical trajectory of molecular sequencing, from foundational protein sequencing methods to modern high-throughput DNA sequencing, highlighting how each era has demanded specialized tools and resources and led to novel biological insights. Despite monumental advancements in sequencing capacity, computational power, sophisticated algorithms, and the latest generative AI techniques, I will argue that the essence of discovery remains rooted in the principles of classical comparative biology.

Date: Tuesday, November 26

Time: 4–5 p.m.

Location: ESJ 1224

Past Events

Fall 2023 Un-Seminar Series

Symposium on Microbiome Research at the Interface of Environment, Health, and Agriculture