Meet the Microbiologist
Science & Ideas
About
Who is microbiology? Meet the Microbiologist (MTM) introduces you to the people who discover, innovate and advance the field of microbiology. Go behind-the-scenes of the microbial sciences with experts in virology, bacteriology, mycology, parasitology and more! Share in their passion for microbes and hear about research successes and even a few setbacks in their field. MTM covers everything from genomics, antibiotic resistance, synthetic biology, emerging infectious diseases, microbial ecology, public health, social equity, host-microbe biology, drug discovery, artificial intelligence, the microbiome and more! From graduate students to working clinicians and emeritus professors, host, Ashley Hagen, Scientific and Digital Editor at the American Society for Microbiology, highlights professionals in all stages of their careers, gleaning wisdom, career advice and even a bit of mentorship along the way.
Episodes
- The Value of Curiosity-Driven Research: Mechanism Discovery With Glen McGugan
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…
- Diagnostics in Action: Telling Microbial Stories
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.…
- Decoding the Pneumococcal Capsule With Moon Nahm
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 r…
- From Earth to Orbit: Applied and Environmental Microbiology With Veronica Garcia
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…
- Unraveling Introns and Expectations With Marlene Belfort, Ph.D.
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 resear…
- The Gut Healing Power of Microbes and Cruciferous Vegetables
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 age…
- Preventing Foodborne Pathogens With Plant-Derived Compounds with Karl Matthews
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 preventa…
- Early Microbial Life with Michael Lynch and Vaughn Cooper
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 th…
- How FMTs, Coprophagia and the Milk Microbiome Inform Wildlife Conservation With Sally Bornbusch
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…
- Agnostic Diagnostics and the Future of ASM Health With Dev Mittar
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…
- Implementing a National Action Plan to Combat AMR in Pakistan With Afreenish Amir
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 a…
- Discovering Fossilized Microbes in Antarctic Ice Cores With Manuel Martinez Garcia
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 analyz…
- Revenge of the Microbes With Brenda Wilson and Brian Ho
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 Bri…
- Binning Singletons With Joseph James
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 conference…
- Biorisk Assessment and Management With Saeed Khan
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/biosecuri…
- From Hydrothermal Vents to Cold Seeps: How Bacteria Sustain Ocean Life With Nicole Dubilier
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…
- When Proteins Become Infectious: Understanding Prion Disease With Neil Mabbott
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 i…
- Trillion Dollar Microbes Make the Bioeconomy Go Round With Tim Donohue
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 th…
- Rabies: The Diabolical Virus With Many Symptoms and Hosts With Rodney Rohde
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 su…
- Increasing Laboratory Capacity for TB Diagnosis With Aureliana Chambal
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 sev…
- Good Science, Bad Science and How to Make it Better with Ferric Fang and Arturo Casadevall
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…
- Using AI to Understand How the Gut-Brain Axis Points to Autism With James Morton
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 G…
- Atypical Metabolism of Leishmania and Other Parasitic and Free-Living Protists With Michael Ginger
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 biolo…
- IBS Biomarkers and Diagnostic Diapers With Maria Eugenia Inda-Webb
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 discuss…
- Think Fungus Early: Preventing Angioinvasion Via Early Detection With Gary Procop
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…
- Moldy Skin, Invasive Aspergillosis and the Rise of Candida auris With Shawn Lockhart
From antifungal resistance to disaster microbiology and tales of visible mold growing across the skin of patients following a tornado in Joplin, Missouri, Dr. Shawn Lockhart, Senior Clinical Laboratory Advisor in the Mycotic Diseases Branc…
- Microbial Flavor Profiles for Bread and Wine Production With Kate Howell
Dr. Kate Howell , Associate Professor of Food Chemistry at the University of Melbourne, Australia discusses how microbes impact the flavor and aroma of food and beverages and shares how microbial interactions can be used to enhance nutriti…
- AncientBiotics With Steve Diggle and Freya Harrison
Dr. Steve Diggle, ASM Distinguished Lecturer and Microbiology Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia and Dr. Freya Harrison, Associate Microbiology Professor at the University of Warwick in Coventry, U.K., dis…
- Sending Yeast to the Moon With Jessica Lee
Dr. Jessica Lee, scientist for the Space Biosciences Research Branch at NASA's AIMS Research Center in Silicon Valley uses both wet-lab experimentation and computational modeling to understand what microbes really experience when they come…
- Invisible Extinction: The Loss of Our Microbes with Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello and Martin Blaser
Dr. Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, Henry Rutgers Professor of Microbiome and Health and director of the Rutgers-based New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health, and Dr. Martin Blaser, Professor of Medicine and Pathology and Labora…
- The Self-Experimentation of Barry Marshall
Dr. Robert Gaynes, distinguished physician and professor of infectious diseases at Emory University, joins Meet the Microbiologist for the 3rd , and final, episode in a unique 3-part segment, in which we share stories about the life and wo…
- The Career of Tony Fauci
Dr. Robert Gaynes, distinguished physician and professor of infectious diseases at Emory University, joins Meet the Microbiologist for the 2nd episode in a unique 3-part series, in which we share the impact of scientists at the heart of va…
- Françoise Barré-Sinoussi's Discovery of HIV
Dr. Robert Gaynes, distinguished physician and professor of infectious diseases at Emory University, joins Meet the Microbiologist for a unique episode, in which we share the story of Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, the French, female scientist…
- Permafrost with Devin Drown
Episode Summary Dr. Devin Drown, associate professor of biology and faculty director of the Institute of Arctic Biology Genomics Core at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, discusses how soil disturbance gradients in the permafrost layer i…
- To Catch a Virus with Marie Landry and John Booss
Dr. Marie Landry, Professor of Laboratory medicine and Infectious Diseases at Yale University School of Medicine and Dr. John Booss, former National Director of Neurology for the Department of Veteran's Affairs discuss the past, present an…
- Outbreak Detection with Wun-Ju Shieh
Dr. Wun-Ju Shieh, worked as a pathologist and infectious diseases expert with the CDC from 1995-2020. He recounts his experiences conducting high risk autopsies on the frontlines of outbreaks including Ebola, H1N1 influenza, monkeypox and…
- Lyme Disease Prevention and Treatment with Linden Hu
Dr. Linden Hu, Vice Dean for Research at Tufts University in Boston Massachusetts and Paul and Elaine Chervinsky Professor in Immunology, discusses new and ongoing research pertaining to the prevention, treatment and diagnosis of human Lym…
- Tardigrades and Microbial Midwives with Mark O. Martin
Dr. Mark O. Martin, Associate professor of biology at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington is a distinguished educator with a well-known social media presence. He discusses how he became interested in microbiology and what d…
- Shark Epidermis Microbiome with Elizabeth Dinsdale
Dr. Elizabeth Dinsdale, Matthew Flinders Fellow in Marine Biology in the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, uses genomic techniques to investigate the biodiversity of microbial communities in…
- Microbial Culture Collections and the Soil Microbiome with Mallory Choudoir
Dr. Mallory Choudoir, microbial ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst shares how she leverages microbial culture collections to infer ecological and evolutionary responses to warming soil temperatu…
- Neglected Tropical Diseases and Pandemic Prevention With Peter Hotez
Peter Hotez talks about the global impact and historical context of neglected tropical diseases. He also highlights important developments in mass drug administration and vaccine research and shares why he chose to publish the third editio…
- 133: Vibrio cholerae with Rita Colwell
Rita Colwell has made major advances in basic and applied microbiology, largely focused on Vibrio cholerae . She describes several lines of evidence for the environmental niche of the bacterium, as well as her work to predict and prepare f…
- 132: Life Science and Earth Science and Biogeomicrobiology with Denise Akob
Denise Akob discusses her studies of microbial communities of contaminated and pristine environments using life science and earth science techniques. She discusses how to figure out "who's there," how to optimize select natural microbial a…
- 131: Powassan virus and tick biology with Marshall Bloom
How does tick biology influence their ability to transmit disease? Marshall Bloom explains the role of the tick salivary glands in Powassan virus transmission and the experiments that led to this discovery. He also provides a historical ba…
- 130: Bioremediation of oil spills with Joel Kostka
What kinds of microorganisms can degrade oil? How do scientists prioritize ecosystems for bioremediation after an oil spill? Joel Kostka discusses his research and the lessons from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that will help scientists…
- 129: Arbovirus evolution with Greg Ebel
How do arboviruses evolve as they pass between different hosts? Greg Ebel discusses his research on West Nile virus evolution and what it means for viral diversity. He also talks about using mosquitos' most recent blood meal to survey huma…
- 128: Managing Plant Pathogens Using Streptomyces with Linda Kinkel
How can the intricate relationship between soil microbiota and plants be managed for improved plant health? Linda Kinkel discusses new insights into the plant rhizosphere and the ways that some Streptomyces isolates can protect agricultura…
- 127: E. coli and Burkholderia vaccines with Alfredo Torres
Pathogenic E. coli are different than lab-grown or commensal E. coli found in the gut microbiome. Alfredo Torres describes the difference between these, the method his lab is using the develop vaccines against pathogenic E. coli , and how…
- 126: Placental biology, infection and immunity with Carolyn Coyne
Does the fetus have a microbiome? How does the placenta prevent infection? Carolyn Coyne talks about placental structure and biology, and why studying the maternal-fetal interface remains a critical area of research. Julie's Biggest Takeaw…
- 125: Coronavirus Antiviral Drug Discovery with Timothy Sheahan
Are there drugs that can treat coronaviruses? Timothy Sheahan talks about his drug discovery work on a compound that can inhibit all coronaviruses tested so far, and tells how his career path took him to pharmaceutical antiviral research a…