Alejandra Mejia-Caballero's presentation on the diversity and function of Lactobacillus amylovorus in the pig intestine was selected for an award at the UC Davis Host Microbe Interaction Annual Retreat at held at Granlibakken, Lake Tahoe, October 2025. Congratulations Alejandra!
We were honored for excellent performance maintaining a culture of laboratory safety. This award was the result of hard work by current and former lab members. It was wonderful to be acknowledged in this way. For more information, see here.
It remains a challenge in microbiology fully enumerage living (viable) microbes. This has implications for probiotics and other biotics research. You can find the blog post here.
Diet is a major determinant of the gastrointestinal microbiome composition and function, yet our understanding of how it impacts the efficacy of prebiotics and probiotics is limited. In an ISAPP led paper published in Nature Microbiology, we examined current evidence of dietary influence on prebiotic and probiotic efficacy in human studies, including potential mechanisms.
Check out the discussion and resources provided on this recent UC Davis podcast. We talk about the state of the science on probiotics and why the diverse microbes in fermented foods should not be called probiotics. It was fun to taste some different fermented foods and biotic products available in the supermarket today,
Congratulations to Lei on completion of her dissertation research and PhD degree in Microbiology. Her dissertation, "Bioactivity of secreted compounds made by fermented vegetable-associated lactobacill" includes a detailed review on the bioactive compounds in lacto-fermented fruits and vegetables and several chapters dedicated to understanding the impacts of fermented food metabolites broadly and bacteriocins specifically in the digestive tract. We are thrilled that Lei will be continuing her work in the Marco lab as a Postdoc starting November 2024.
Our collaborative ISAPP group found that foods with higher microbial concentrations are associated with modest health improvements across a range of outcomes.
This published in Applied Environmental Microbiology shows how intraspecies interactions in food fermentations are dependent on metal cation availabilty.
Glory Bui (PhD student MGG) received the honor of a coveted poster award at the annual International Scientific Association of Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) meeting in Sitges, Spain. The award was given to two students by the Student Fellows Association (SFA). Congratulations to Glory on her excellent research and presentation on diffusible factors made by L. casei in milk which improve intestinal epithelial barrier function.
