bobÌåÓý

Microbial Diversity Course Alumni 2013- 2019 Testimonial of Impact of techniques, skills, mini project research, and professional development networking.

Lynn Kee, Assistant Professor of Biology, Stetson University

Please share any examples of how your mentored research experience (i.e., the miniprojects) or any other techniques you learned in the course impacted your ongoing research while back at home, impacted the scientific questions you now pursue, or became a part of research labs you have gone on to launch?

MicDiv has been a great opportunity for me to learn microbial and genomics techniques, expanding my toolbox from my graduate training in molecular and cell biology. I had the opportunity to attend as a student in the summer prior to a tenure-track faculty position at a PUI, and have returned two times during the summer in subsequent years as a Whitman fellow to continue working on my mini project. I’ve been fortunate to be housed in the MicDiv space in those two summers, to continue learning from the expertise of instructors from the course and utilizing the resources that the course provides.

Are there any examples where the course impacted your professional development (publications, introduced you to a scientist you went on to work for, made a connection that helped advance your career, etc)?

Two publications in Microbial Resource Announcement of microbes isolated from the course have contributed to my tenure portfolio. The knowledge and skills I have gained have helped me tremendously with my teaching of undergraduates and scholarship.

Alex Villarreal (2019) Ph. D candidate University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Medical School

Please share any examples of how your mentored research experience (i.e., the miniprojects) or any other techniques you learned in the course impacted your ongoing research while back at home, impacted the scientific questions you now pursue, or became a part of research labs you have gone on to launch?

My mentorship and mini project taught me many skills that I still use in the lab today. A specific example is that I became very familiar with Fluorescent In-Situ Hybridization (FISH) as part of my mini project. When I returned to my home lab, I was able to volunteer to complete FISH on tissue samples for an Achromobacter mouse model project. I was the only one in the lab that was familiar with the technique, I was able to complete the protocols well, and my contributions are leading to my authorship on an upcoming publication.

Are there any examples where the course impacted your professional development (publications, introduced you to a scientist you went on to work for, made a connection that helped advance your career, etc)?

Please share any examples of how your mentored research experience (i.e., the miniprojects) or any other techniques you learned in the course impacted your ongoing research while back at home, impacted the scientific questions you now pursue, or became a part of research labs you have gone on to launch?

As a synthetic biologist by training, the course allowed me to transition to a postdoctoral career studying microbial ecology in the mammalian gastrointestinal tract. Several years later, I am still using the experimental and computational methods taught during the course in my research. Furthermore, the concepts and questions I learned during this course have been a guiding light as I formulate my own research plans in preparation for my future career goals.

Are there any examples where the course impacted your professional development (publications, introduced you to a scientist you went on to work for, made a connection that helped advance your career, etc)?

In addition, the course directors allowed me to continue developing my miniproject after the conclusion of the course. In collaboration with other affiliates of the Microbial Diversity course, we produced a publication describing a new species of bacteriophage and its molecular relationship with its bacterial host, Phaeobacter inhibens (10.1128/ mSphere.00898-20).

Please share any examples of how your mentored research experience (i.e., the miniprojects) or any other techniques you learned in the course impacted your ongoing research while back at home, impacted the scientific questions you now pursue, or became a part of research labs you have gone on to launch?

1. I was able to develop a course in Microbial Ecology and have been successfully teaching this course for the past 3 years.

2. The techniques learned though the course allowed me establish a vibrant research program at my home institution. We successfully cultured Cyclobacterium marinum from near benthic water, sequenced genome, and currently studying ecophysiology.

Are there any examples where the course impacted your professional development (publications, introduced you to a scientist you went on to work for, made a connection that helped advance your career, etc)?

1. I was able to network and collaborate with Dr. Mark Saito, WHOI, whom I met during the course. He is also a collaborator in of the proposals submitted to NSF with anticipated funding in the fall of 2021. I connected with Dr. Kyle Costa (was one of the TIA for the course) and visited University of Minnesota for a diversity conference. Informal discussions with Kyle helped me to develop extended Curriculum - based Undergraduate Research Experience.

2. I was able to apply and receive the E.E. Just fellowship at the bobÌåÓý summer of 2021. I will bring two students of color to MBL and engage them in cutting edge research.

Please share any examples of how your mentored research experience (i.e., the miniprojects) or any other techniques you learned in the course impacted your ongoing research while back at home, impacted the scientific questions you now pursue, or became a part of research labs you have gone on to launch?

I wrote another paper measuring the relationship of bacterial communities and soil pH (exploring this property as hydrogen activity) across Wisconsin. This should be published in Soil Biology and Biochemistry in a couple weeks. This work, largely stemming from my training, conversations, and experiences at MBL in the summer of 2016, helped me land my current position at Idaho State University, working on a $6 million NSF project investigating the microbiology of intermittent streams across the West and Southwest USA.

Are there any examples where the course impacted your professional development (publications, introduced you to a scientist you went on to work for, made a connection that helped advance your career, etc)?

I recently published a paper in Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education with an improved diffusion microchamber device (aka "ichip") for cultivating soil microorganisms, intended for research laboratories and microbiology classrooms.

Student Alumni Microbial Diversity Course 2017

Please share any examples of how your mentored research experience (i.e., the miniprojects) or any other techniques you learned in the course impacted your ongoing research while back at home, impacted the scientific questions you now pursue, or became a part of research labs you have gone on to launch?

By training, I am a structural biologist. My experience with the MD course allowed me to pursue a postdoc where I focused on microbial physiology of mycobacterial secretion machines. Based on what I learned about the environment of bacteria I was able to uncover new ways of asking questions with the secretion system, ESX-1 in Mycobacterium smegmatis, and this has been my main postdoctoral research for the past 4 years.

Are there any examples where the course impacted your professional development (publications, introduced you to a scientist you went on to work for, made a connection that helped advance your career, etc)?

I have found my experience definitely opened doors, and laid out common ground with many scientists across a variety of fields.

Please share any examples of how your mentored research experience (i.e., the miniprojects) or any other techniques you learned in the course impacted your ongoing research while back at home, impacted the scientific questions you now pursue, or became a part of research labs you have gone on to launch?

I am continuing (slowly!) to analyze the data that I collected during the course, and I'm hoping it may eventually turn into a small publication.

Are there any examples where the course impacted your professional development (publications, introduced you to a scientist you went on to work for, made a connection that helped advance your career, etc)?

I just had a postdoc interview with a speaker from the course.

Please share any examples of how your mentored research experience (i.e., the miniprojects) or any other techniques you learned in the course impacted your ongoing research while back at home, impacted the scientific questions you now pursue, or became a part of research labs you have gone on to launch?

In my case, the skills I learned led to a new R01 award to my lab to understand patterns of functional aging in primate gut microbiomes.

Are there any examples where the course impacted your professional