We are thrilled to congratulate Faith Rahic-Seggerman on a successful PhD defense 🎉 Wishing you all the best as you begin this exciting next chapter, we can't wait to see all that you accomplish.

The GERMS lab, headed by Prof. Adina Howe, presented at the ASM Microbe in Washington, D.C.! Clarisse presented a poster highlighting their research and Dr. Howe participated in the annual convention as an ASM mSystems senior editor and collaborator. youtube.com/watch?v=kBu7Gf10…

Michelle Chamberlain and members of the Swanner lab recently presented at AbSciCon in Madison, Wisconsin. Michelle gave a talk about the interplay between phosphorus cycling and Cyanobacteria activity in a ferruginous lake!

Dr. Mellata’s Lab recently shared their research at the Midwest Microbiome Symposium hosted at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Mellata gave the keynote talk and Caleb Skow presented a poster! publish.illinois.edu/microbi…

Caleb Skow and Logan C. Ott of Dr. Mellata’s lab recently published an article in Frontiers in Microbiology titled, “A defined microbiota mouse model for Salmonella Paratyphi A oral infection”. doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2026.1…

Olmedo-Velarde Lab students Carter Casey and Kota Nakasato represented ISU at the WERA-20 annual meeting, Management of Diseases Caused by Systemic Pathogens in Temperate and Sub-Tropical Fruit Crops and Woody Ornamentals, held at Maui Community College! nimss.org/projects/view/mrp/…

Dr. Melha Mellata, Associate Professor of Molecular Microbiology, and her graduate student, Caleb Skow, hosted a microbiology outreach event to connect the classroom with real-world agriculture and food safety! @Mellata_Lab ppem.iastate.edu/news/2026/b…

Students from the IM program participated in the 4th Annual Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences Symposium (IBSS 2026). At this year’s event, Tyler Simpkins and Nayrmaliz Marrero presented posters highlighting their research!

We had a fantastic time at this year’s spring retreat! A huge thank you to everyone who presented their work and contributed to such engaging discussions, as well as to all who attended and helped create a supportive and energizing environment. #SpringRetreat #Microbiology

Please join us in celebrating Marissa Roghair Stroud on the successful defense of her doctoral dissertation🥳 We are excited to see what’s next for Marissa as she starts her journey as an official Ph.D. #GraduateSchool #PhDDefense #AcademicExcellence #Research #HigherEd

Have you ever wondered what concentration of molybdenum (Mo) limits nitrogen fixation? Zak Stevenson studied Deming Lake, where Mo was barely detectable, yet, nitrogen fixation was not Mo-limited. Learn more about this cool study from the link below: nature.com/articles/s43247-0…

Students from the Interdepartmental Microbiology graduate program recently attended the 13th biannual All Iowa Virology Symposium! Carter Casey, Tyler Simpkins, and Kota Nakasato presented their research. iowavirology.cvm.iastate.edu

Dr. Gwyn A. Beattie’s Lab published three 2025 papers shedding new insights on soil microbiome strategies for environmental benefits and bacteria linked to cucurbit yellow vine disease! Check them out below: doi.org/10.1128/msystems.011… doi.org/10.1094/phyto-10-24-… doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-05-25-…

Congratulations to Puja Bajracharya, a PhD student in Dr. Weaver’s lab, for receiving three competitive Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology (EEOB) scholarship awards: the Harry and Audrey Finch Scholarship, the Lois H. Tiffany Scholarship, and the Gilman Scholarship Award!

Congratulations to Binayak Raj Pandey, a third-year Microbiology PhD student in Dr. Xiang’s lab, for being awarded the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC) Foundation Student Research Support Grant for 2025! 🥳🎊🎉

Mellata’s team recently published an article titled "Host Genetics Regulate Bacterial Plasmid Conjugation Differentially in Avian Ceca Explant Co-Culture Through Secretory miRNA". Caleb Skow and Logan Ott are the co-first authors of this publication! nature.com/articles/s44259-0…

Congratulations to Zachary Burton for his recent publication titled "Corrosion inhibition of an aluminum alloy by environmentally derived microbial biofilms."🦠 Check out this cool work! frontiersin.org/journals/mic…

Congratulations to Dr. Dylan Schultz, who defended his dissertation last Friday, November 21st! 🥳

Jessica Strathman recently published an article titled "Transcriptome Sequencing Reveals Distinct Stress Response of Listeria monocytogenes 6179 During Logarithmic and Stationary Growth Phases" in Microbiology Open. Check out this awesome work! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/…

Members of MGSO had the opportunity to host a session at the Go Further STEM Conference! Participants were introduced to microbiology and even created their own Winogradsky columns. It was inspiring to meet so many future scientists and engineers! 🦠