Max Häggblom Co-directs 2022 European Microbiological Societies’ Professional Development Summer School for Postdocs

Max Häggblom (front row, second from right) and Hilary Lappin-Scott of Cardiff University (third from right), served as co-directors of the 2022 FEMS Summer School for Postdocs held at the Mediterranean Institute for Life Sciences in Split, Croatia.

Max Häggblom, chair and distinguished professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, severed as lead instructor and co-director of the 2022 FEMS Summer School for Postdocs held Sept. 3-13 in Split, Croatia. FEMS, the Federation of European Microbiological Societies, was set up in 1974 and is a growing coalition of 56 member societies from 40 countries. FEMS summer schools are designed …

SEBS Researchers Receive NSF Funding to Explore Social and Ecological Factors of Pathogen Occurrence in Amphibian Pet Trade

Researchers at Rutgers University, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, have received funding to identify how socio-economic decisions and pathogen dynamics impact each other in a wildlife trade network. Photo courtesy Pixabay.

Professor Julie Lockwood, Department of Ecology Evolution and Natural Resources, and Ryan Almeida, School of Graduate Studies, will work with collaborators across four universities to characterize the trade of pet amphibians within the United States, including the range of amphibian species sold as pets and which species are the most common and cheapest to purchase.  For the next five years, the team—which …

Understanding the Impact of Marine Viruses on the Ocean’s Carbon Cycle and Role in Climate Change

Sample collection in the Gulf of Naples.

By Carol Peters, EOAS Communications To address one of the most pressing issues impacting human civilization, pioneering work by EOAS faculty members Kay Bidle and Kimberlee Thamatrakoln is, for the first time, changing the ways scientists understand the impact marine viruses have on phytoplankton, the ocean’s role in the carbon cycle, and ultimately on Earth’s changing climate. Arriving on the …

Rutgers University Hosts Regional One Health Consortium Conference — SEBS Faculty Present on Ticks and Nutrition

From left to right, Amy Papi, Co-Chair, NJ One Health Steering Committee; Joshua W. Miller, professor and chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Rutgers; Cheryl Stroud, executive director, One Health Commission, North Carolina; James S. Holt, VMD, veterinarian at Brandywine Veterinary Services, chairman of the Pennsylvania One Health Task Force; Michael E. Zwick, senior vice president for Research at Rutgers; Brint Spencer, VMD, director at Brandywine Zoo, Delaware; and Gloria Bachmann, MD, MMS, associate dean for Women’s Health and Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Co-Chair of the New Jersey One Health Steering Committee, and core faculty member of the Rutgers Global Health Institute. Photo: Nick Romanenko.

Rutgers Office for Research brought together scientists and experts to form relationships and collaborate on efforts to improve issues affecting the interconnectedness of humans, animals, and the environment. A group of scientists, experts, and representatives from New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, and West Virginia convened for a mid-Atlantic Regional One Health Consortium Conference at Rutgers University last Friday.   In-person …

Debashish Bhattacharya Receives Prestigious Miescher-Ishida Prize for Advancing the Field of Endosymbiosis

Rutgers Distinguished Professor Debashish Bhattacharya received the 2022 Miescher-Ishida Prize from Dr. Peter Kroth, University Professor at the University of Konstanz, Germany, at the ISE meeting in České Budějovice, Czech Republic.

Distinguished Professor Debashish Bhattacharya in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at Rutgers–New Brunswick School of Environmental and Biological Sciences was awarded the 2022 Miescher-Ishida Prize by the International Society of Endocytobiology (ISE) and the University of Tübingen, Germany. He received the award at the 21st Symposium of the ISE in České Budějovice, Czech Republic, on July 21, and presented …

The Dynamic Evolution of a Photosynthetic Organelle

The transition from a heterotrophic to a photosynthetic lifestyle by the amoeba Paulinella. This primary endosymbiosis led to the origin of a new organelle (the chromatophore) and gene movement from the endosymbiont to the amoeba nuclear genome. Image created by Victoria Calatrava.

Research provides key clues to primary endosymbiosis and the evolution of photosynthesis that may prove useful in crop improvement. Tiny bacteria and massive trees are both integral to sustaining our planet. A few billion years were required for the evolution of biological complexity and therefore it is a challenge to elucidate critical, early events that triggered this diversification. A paper, “Retrotransposition …

Maslo Lab Combines Expertise to Research Snake Fungal Disease

Bobby Kwait holding an eastern copperhead snake in preparation for snake fungal disease sample collection.

Morgan Mark (SEBS’22), Tyler Christensen (Ph.D. Candidate), and Bobby Kwait (Ph.D. Candidate)—all members of assistant professor Brooke Maslo’s lab—were recently awarded funding from the Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians (ARAV) for their project examining the seasonal dynamics of snake fungal disease in free-ranging eastern copperheads. Snake fungal disease (SFD) is a recently discovered fungal pathogen, Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, that is impacting snake populations in …

Scientists Discover Link Between Climate Change and Biological Evolution of Phytoplankton

Emergence of new species of the coccolithophere (calcite producing marine algae), paced by approximately 400,000 year variations in the shape of Earth’s revolutions around the sun (eccentricity shown in inset) has been documented by the changes in the shape and size of their internal calcite plates shown here in photos obtained from scanning electron microscope. Figure courtesy of Luc Beaufort, Centre for Research and Teaching in Environmental Geoscience in France.

Using artificial intelligence techniques, an international team that included Rutgers-New Brunswick researchers have traced the evolution of coccolithophores, an ocean-dwelling phytoplankton group, over 2.8 million years. Their findings, published this week in the journal Nature, reveal new evidence that evolutionary cycles in a marine phytoplankton group are related to changes in tropical seasonality, shedding light on the link between biological evolution …

Major Deep Carbon Sink Linked to Microbes Found Near Volcano Chains

Rutgers and other scientists show how microbes help store millions of tons of carbon dioxide Up to about 19 percent more carbon dioxide than previously believed is removed naturally and stored underground between coastal trenches and inland chains of volcanoes, keeping the greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere, according to a study in the journal Nature. Surprisingly, subsurface microbes play a role in storing …