Matters Microbial

Matters Microbial #140: Out of Many, One — Coral and Jellyfish Holobionts October 7, 2026 Today Dr. Monica Medina, Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA, joins the quality quorum to discuss how organisms are made up of myriad other organisms—the holonbiont concept.  Dr. Medina and her research group focus on studying this in jellyfish and coral.   Host:  Mark O. M...

Matters Microbial #139: How Listeria Gets By With a Little Help From Its Friends September 23, 2026 Today Dr. Jasna Kovac, Huck Chair in Microbiomes in Food Safety and Associate Professor of Food Science at Penn State University (and active member of Penn State's One Health Microbiome Center)   joins the quality quorum to discuss how understanding the microbiome in food processing facilities can h...

Matters Microbial #138: Sightseeing the Microbial World September 8, 2026 Today Dr. Monika Oli, Instructional Professor of the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science at the University of Florida   joins the quality quorum to discuss how she teaches microbiology students to view the topic through a global lens as a study abroad program. Her approach   demonstrates how travel enriches scientifi...

Matters Microbial #137: The Living Skin of Our Planet August 25, 2026 Today Dr. Estelle Couradeau, Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University,  joins the quality quorum today to discuss the role that the soil microbiome can play in terms of agriculture, moderating temperature, and prote...

Matters Microbial #136: When Bacteria Open the Wrong Door August 11, 2026 Today Dr. Michael D.L. Johnson, Associate Professor of Immunobiology at the University of Arizona,  joins the quality quorum today to discuss copper, microbiology, and a possible new strategy to fight bacteria that cause disease. Host:  Mark O. Martin Guest : Michael D. L. Johnson Subscribe: Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify Become...

Matters Microbial #135: Biofilms in Motion—The Adorable Zorbs July 30, 2026 Host:  Mark O. Martin Guest :  Jo Handelsmann ,  Shruthi Magesh Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify Become a  patron  of Matters Microbial! Links for this episode Here is a link to the Etsy shop where one can buy the wonderful " THIS IS WHAT A MICROBIOLOGIST LOOKS LIKE " enamel pins. Here is a link to the  World Microbio...

Matters Microbial #134: Could Alien Life Use Different Chemistry? July 14, 2026 Today Dr. Morgan Sobol, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Texas State University, joins the Quality Quorum today to discuss how microbes on early earth began interacting with elements like nitrogen, making life possible here and perhaps elsewhere in the universe! You will learn about the fundamental a...

Matters Microbial #133: The Microbial Partnerships That Help Corals Survive June 29, 2026 Dr. Hannah Reich of the Department of Environmental Biology at the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how microalgal interactions (including with bacteria) are fundamental contributors to large scale ecosystem processes including th...

Matters Microbial #132: What 83,000 Generations of Bacteria Reveal About Evolution June 17, 2026 Today Dr. Jeffrey Barrick, John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of the Department of Microbiology, Genetics, & Immunology and the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University, joins the quality quorum today to discuss how microbes can be used to study evolution itself. He will also discuss t...

Matters Microbial #131: What Cystic Fibrosis Reveals About Hidden Microbial Lives June 3, 2026 Today Dr. Sam Brown, Professor of Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech University, joins the quality quorum today to discuss the social lives of bacterial pathogens. He will also discuss VERY recent research from his lab group exploring the specialist/generalist problem in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and thou...

Matters Microbial #130: The Holobiont — Animals, Microbes, and Ecology May 19, 2026 Today Dr. Kevin Kohl, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how he and his colleagues study the interplay between animals, their resident gut microbes, and the overarching concept of the holobiont. Host:  Mark O. Martin Guest :  Kevin Kohl Su...

Matters Microbial #129: Microbes Reveal How Evolution Might Replay May 5, 2026 Today Dr. Michael Travisano, Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the College of Biological Sciences of the University of Minnesota, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss fascinating work from his lab group exploring evolutionary questions from a microbial perspective. Host:  Mark O. Martin Guest :  Michael Trav...

Matters Microbial #128: C. diff from Nursery to Nursing Home April 20, 2026 Today Dr. Joseph Zackular, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss some fascinating microbiology involving the bacterium Clostridiodes difficile (also known as C. diff), which can cause disease in infa...

Matters Microbial #127: Even Your Navel Has Them — An Archaea‑Whisperer Explores April 7, 2026 Today Dr. Nahui Medina-Chavez, postdoctoral scholar in the Travisano laboratory at the University of Minnesota, joins the Quality Quorum to discuss her interest in the ubiquitous archaea, and her own research studying experimental evolution in extreme halophiles. Host:  Mark O. Martin Guest :  Nahui Medi...

Matters Microbial #126: Squid Eggs Come With Antifungal Frosting March 24, 2026 Today Dr. Spencer Nyholm, Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Connecticut, and Director of the Professional Science Master's Program in Microbial Systems Analysis, joins the Quality Quorum to discuss his research group's work exploring how some squid have harnessed microbes to...

Matters Microbial #125: Antibiotics, Streptomyces and Evolution March 15, 2026 Today Professor Paul Hoskisson, Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Engineering Biology at the University of Strathclyde joins the Quality Quorum to discuss his research group's adventures studying how the bacterium  Streptomyces develops, produces antibiotics, and evolves! Host:  Mark O. Martin Guest :  Paul...

Matters Microbial #124: How Bacteria Die in the Microbial Marine Forest February 24, 2026 Today Dr. Anne Thompson, Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Portland State University, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss the small but necessary microbes in our oceans. They are hugely abundant, use strategies that produce the very oxygen we breathe, and live within an unseen marin...

Matters Microbial #123: What Whooping Cough Can Teach Us February 6, 2026 Today Dr. Seema Mattoo, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Purdue University, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss the fascinating molecular genetics of the bacterium  Bordetella pertussis , which can cause the human disease whooping cough. Host:  Mark O. Martin Guest :  Seema Mattoo Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts ,  S...

Matters Microbial #122: Jumbo Marine Viruses and Nanoscopic Warfare January 26, 2026   Today Dr. Alaina Weinheimer, Simons Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Marine Microbial Ecology at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss new and intriguing marine viruses, including Jumbo Phages!    Host:  Mark O. Martin Guest :  Alaina Weinheimer   Subscribe:  Apple Podca...

Matters Microbial #121: Phollowing Phage in the Gut Microbiome January 7, 2026 Today Dr. Liz de Ora Ortiz, postdoctoral scholar in the Secor Laboratory at Montana State University, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss a fascinating new technology that allows investigators to follow bacteriophage infections in live animals.   Host:  Mark O. Martin Guest :  Liz de Ora Ortiz Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts...

Matters Microbial #120: Bacterial Interactions among Oral Microbes December 29, 2025 For Episode 120, we welcome Dr. Batbileg Bor, Associate Professor at the ADA Forsyth Institute, to the #QualityQuorum.   He joins us to discuss some of the oral community's most enigmatic members: microbes that dwell on other microbes and potentially influence our own health. Host:  Mark O. Martin Guest :  Batbile...

Matters Microbial #119: Investigating Microbial "Dark Matter" December 22, 2025 Today Dr. Julia Willett, Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Minnesota, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how to investigate unknown genes found in nearly every bacterial genome. Call it Microbial Dark Matter! Host:  Mark O. Martin Guest :  Julia Willett Subscribe...

Matters Microbial #118: Biofilms Everywhere! December 15, 2025 Today Dr. Matthew Fields, Director of the Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss ubiquitous microbial biofilms. These biofilms touch so many aspects of life on Earth, ranging from human health to engineering issues!   Host:  Mark O. Martin Guest :  Matthew Fields Subscribe:  Appl...

Matters Microbial #117: Cancer Virus Hunters and Molecular Biology December 8, 2025 Today Dr. Gregory Morgan, Professor in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Stevens Institute of Technology, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how cancer causing viruses advanced molecular biology as described in his recent book  Cancer Virus Hunters .   Host:  Mark O. Martin Guest :  Gregory Mo...

Matters Microbial #116: Microbes in the Concrete Instead of the Abstract November 14, 2025 Today Dr. Julie Maresca, Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how bacteria can interact with a ubiquitous part of modern life:  concrete! Host:  Mark O. Martin Guest :  Julie Maresca Subscribe:  Apple...