“We live in a microbial world” – began Martina Dal Bello, faculty member at the Yale Microbial Sciences Institute (MSI). A recent arrival at Yale, the Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology gave the keynote talk to scholars at the Institute’s Annual Retreat November 20th.
Now in its fourth year, the gathering took place amidst panoramic views high above New Haven on the top floor of Kline Biology Tower. The day brought together MSI faculty, trainees and staff to experience a mix of science talks, practical problem solving, poster sessions and social time.
Recent technological advances have revolutionized the broad field of microbial sciences, opening the door to exciting new avenues of research. MSI researchers leverage these tools to develop creative multidisciplinary approaches to address fundamental questions in microbial ecology, evolution, cell physiology, cell biology and pathogenesis.
With two new faculty joining the Institute recently, the MSI has grown to around 50 members with more faculty recruitment expected this year. Opening the day’s program, Institute Director Andrew Goodman, C.N.H. Long Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis recognized the diversity of microbiology research across the Institute.
“The hard work of you all can be seen in the numerous scientific papers coming from the labs” - Andrew Goodman
The day’s science talks highlighted this breadth of research, with talks by Andrew Verdegaal (Goodman Lab), Huaxin Yu (Liu Lab), Anna Seminara (Hatzios Lab), Nikhil Malvankar, and Kristina Ferrara (Pi Lab) covering subjects as wide as the antibacterial effects of Parkinson’s disease drugs, Salmonella infection, and pili-based electron transfer alongside Del Bello’s talk, “Studying community responses to environment change: Integrating lab microcosms and natural microbiome data.”
The primary interest of the Dal Bello Lab is to learn how bacteria respond to and modify their environment, and how this, in turn, shapes species interactions, assembly processes, and the structure of microbial communities.
The day also featured poster sessions and science solutions groups, with scholars organized into mini-focus groups to triage and offer ideas and practical help on specific scientific inquiries and challenges.
The event was organized by a committee comprising Jennifer Aronson, Aman Kumar, Hualiang Pi, Aldo Salazar Morales, Anna Seminara, Ernest Sun, and Hannie Zhao.
