Meet the Microbiologist

Glen McGugan, Ph. D., Director of ASM's Mechanism Discovery Unit, discusses how curiosity‑driven research—from parasite virulence to CRISPR and complex microbial systems—drives tomorrow's breakthroughs.  Ashley's Biggest Takeaways Mechanism discovery,encompasses all of the foundational basic research across the microbial sciences and is essential for all advances in microbial science. Many transfo...

Andrea Prinzi, Ph. D., MPH, SM(ASCP) , and Rodney Rohde, Ph. D.,SM(ASCP)CM, SVCM , trace how passion‑driven, nonlinear paths in clinical microbiology led them from hospital benches and public health labs to academia and industry leadership. Their stories converge on a shared mission: to use diagnostics, outcomes research and lived experience to make microbiology relevant, contextual and approachab...

Moon Nahm, M.D., professor emeritus at UAB Department of Medicine and Director of the World Health Organization's Pneumococcal Serology Reference Laboratory at UAB, discusses his career in pneumococcal immunology. From uncovering the WU2 reference strain and other hidden serotypes to pioneering Multiplexed Opsono-Phagocytosis Assay (MOPA) to measure the functional activity of anti-pneumococcal ant...

From leading R&D at a biotech startup company to conducting environmental monitoring for NASA, Veronica Garcia, Ph. D. , Scientific Director of the ASM Applied and Environmental Microbiology unit shares how experiences throughout her career have informed her appreciation for microbes and their real-world applications. She also discusses how the ASM AEM unit will support scientists around the globe...

Marlene Belfort, Ph. D., a distinguished professor at the University at Albany and author of  Mommy, Can Boys Also Be Doctors? , discusses her journey in science, balancing personal and professional life, the importance of fundamental research and the discovery of introns in bacteriophage. Links for This Episode Mommy, Can Boys Also Be Doctors?: A Message to Young Scientists and Other Humans .

Episode Summary Sue Ishaq, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Microbiomes at the University of Maine, discusses how gut microbes transform seemingly inert plant compounds—like glucosinolates found in broccoli—into powerful anti-inflammatory agents such as sulforaphane. Her research dives into the fascinating interplay between diet, cooking methods and the diversity of the gut microbiota, revealing how...

Karl Matthews, Ph. D., Professor of Microbial Food Safety at Rutgers University, discusses ways to eliminate pathogens like  Salmonella ,  E. coli  O157:H7 and  Listeria from fresh fruits and vegetables. He highlights the importance of preventative measures from farm to table, including the use of water antimicrobials, like chlorine, and photosensitizers, like curcumin. Watch this episode: https:/...

Michael Lynch, Ph. D., Director of the Center for Mechanisms of Evolution at Arizona State University and Vaughn Cooper, Ph. D., professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, examine the origins and trajectory of early microbial life (EML) and discuss the collaborative report between the American Academy of Microbiology and the Gordon and Bet...

Sally Bornbusch, Ph. D., is an NSF postdoctoral fellow in biology conducting microbial ecology research in animal care and conservation at the Smithsonian National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute. She discusses how FMTs are being used to mitigate health concerns in wild animals in captivity, shares key findings about the milk microbiome from the Smithsonian milk repository, the largest collec...

Dev Mittar, Ph. D ., Scientific Director of the  ASM Health Scientific Unit  discusses the use of metagenomic next generation sequencing to develop agnostic diagnostic technology, giving scientists and clinicians alike, a tool to diagnose any infectious disease with one single test. He also discusses how the ASM Health Unit is empowering scientists and leveraging microbial science innovations to a...

Episode Summary Afreenish Amir, Ph. D. , Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Project Director at the National Institute of Health in Pakistan, highlights significant increases in extensively drug-resistant typhoid and cholera cases in Pakistan and discusses local factors driving AMR in Asia. She describes the development and implementation of a National Action Plan to combat AMR in a developing country...

Manuel Martinez Garcia, Ph. D., a professor of microbiology in the Physiology, Genetics and Microbiology Department at the University of Alicante in Spain, paints a picture of what microbial life looked like thousands of years ago by analyzing microbial genomic signatures within ice cores collected from the Antarctic ice shelves in the 1990s.  Links for the Episode  New avenues for potentially see...

Episode Summary Mother-Son duo, Brenda Wilson, Ph. D., professor of microbiology and the Associate Director of Undergraduate Education in the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and Brian Ho, Ph. D., researcher and lecturer at the Institute of structural and molecular biology, a joint institute between the Department of structural and molecula...

Joseph James, biologist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, discusses his career trajectory and the creation of Binning Singletons, a unique mentorship program built on peer-to-peer networking at scientific meetings and conferences and was first implemented in 2019 at ASM Microbe. Links for the Episode Binning Singletons and Peer-to-Peer Networking Learn more about Binning Singletons . Co...

Saeed Khan, Ph. D., Head of the Department of Molecular Pathology at Dow diagnostic research and reference laboratory and President of the Pakistan Biological Safety Association discusses the importance and challenges of biosafety/biosecurity practices on both a local and global scale. He highlights key steps for biorisk assessment and management and stresses the importance of training, timing and...

Nicole Dubilier, Ph. D., Director and head of the Symbiosis Department at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, has led numerous reserach cruises and expeditions around the world studying the symbiotic relationships of bacteria and marine invertebrates. She discusses how the use of various methods, including deep-sea in situ tools, molecular, 'omic' and imaging analyses, have illuminat...

From Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), Neil Mabbott, Ph. D., has worked for nearly 2 decades on understanding the mechanisms by which prion proteins become infectious and cause neurological disease in humans and animals. He discusses the remarkable properties of prions and addresses complexities surrounding symptoms, transmission and diagnosis of prion dise...

Episode Summary Timothy Donohue, Ph. D. —ASM Past President, University of Wisconsin Foundation Fetzer Professor of Bacteriologyand Director of the  Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) calls genomics a game-changer when it comes the potential of microbes to create renewable resources and products that can sustain the environment, economy and supply chain around the world. He also shares...

Rodney Rohde, Ph. D. , Regents' Professor and Chair of the Medical Laboratory Science Program at Texas State University discusses the many variants, mammalian hosts and diverse neurological symptoms of rabies virus. Take the  MTM listener survey! Ashley's Biggest Takeaways: Prior to his academic career, Rohde spent a decade as a public health microbiologist and molecular epidemiologist with the  T...

ASM's Young Ambassador, Aureliana Chambal, discusses the high incidence of tuberculosis in Mozambique and how improved surveillance can help block disease transmission in low resource settings.  Ashley's Biggest Takeaways: Mozambique is severely impacted by the TB epidemic, with one of the highest incidences in Africa (368 cases/ 100,000 people in the population). Human-adapted members of the Myco...

The scientific process has the power to deliver a better world and may be the most monumental human achievement. But when it is unethically performed or miscommunicated, it can cause confusion and division. Drs. Fang and Casadevall discuss what is good science, what is bad science and how to make it better. Get the book! Thinking about Science: Good Science, Bad Science, and How to Make It Better

Dr. James Morton discusses how the gut microbiome modulates brain development and function with specific emphasis on how the gut-brain axis points to functional architecture of autism. Watch James' talk from ASM Microbe 2023: Using AI to Glean Insights From Microbiome Data https://youtu.be/hUQls359Spo

Dr. Michael ginger, Dean of the School of Applied Sciences in the Department of Biological and geographical Science at the University of Huddersfield, in West Yorkshire, England discusses the atypical metabolism and evolutionary cell biology of parasitic and free-living protists, including Leishmania, Naegleria and  even euglinids.

Dr. Maria Eugenia Inda-Webb , Pew Postdoctoral Fellow working in the Synthetic Biology Center at MIT builds biosensors to diagnose and treat inflammatory disorders in the gut, like inflammatory bowel disease and celiac disease. She discusses how "wearables," like diagnostic diapers and nursing pads could help monitor microbiome development to treat the diseases of tomorrow.   Subscribe (free) on A...

Dr. Gary Procop, CEO of the American Board of pathology and professor of pathology at the Cleveland Clinic, Lerner School of Medicine discusses the importance of early detection and diagnosis in order to prevent fungal invasion leading to poor outcomes, particularly in immunocompromised patients. He emphasizes the importance of thinking fungus early, shares his passion for mentoring and talks abou...