Check out Leah's defense of her research "Unearthing the role of ectomycorrhizal fungi in pine invasion on Maui," which was funded by C-MĀIKI. Watch the video here!

Dr. Margaret McFall-Ngai presents her research on the squid-vibrio symbiosis for the graduate class "Ecology of Microbial Symbiosis." See her talk here!

Cooperating C-MĀIKI faculty member Nhu Nguyen is a 2021 tenure and promotion recipient at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Bravo! https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2021/06/18/uh-2021-tenure-and-promotion-list/

C-MĀIKI Director, Dr. Nicole Hynson, attended the 2nd in person Microbiome Centers Consortium (MCC) meeting at the University of Chicago where Directors of the national academic microbiome centers met to discuss synergies and how to support the future of microbiome research and education. For more information on the MCC check out this website: https://microbiomecenters.org/

The Pacific Biosciences Research Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is hiring a Researcher (Full Professor equivalent) in Integrated Microbiome Science. Those interested in applying should do so by May 16 to be included in the first round of considerations. For more information please see: https://www.schooljobs.com/careers/hawaiiedu/jobs/3495963/researcher-equivalent-to-full-professor-of-biosciences-posn-82743?keywords=Researcher&pagetype=jobOpportunitiesJobs

The keys to saving endangered species and improving the ecology of our communities may be found in thousands of microbiomes and microbes examined by researchers from the ocean to the summit of the Waimea Valley watershed on Oʻahu. Our team of researchers conducted a monumental field expedition by sampling more than 3,000 microbes and microbiomes from the ocean of Waimea Bay to the deepest part of Waimea Valley. The investigation revealed three key discoveries: microbes follow the food web, most of the microbial diversity in a watershed is maintained within the soil and stream water and the local distribution of a microbe predicts how it is distributed globally. These findings were published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science . The research team conducted a microbiome “bioblitz”—a near complete census of all environmental substrates and possible hosts to microbes within the watershed. They took more than 3,000 samples from the wet summit of Puʻu Kainapuaʻa, the low floodplain of Waimea Valley and even the clear waters of Waimea Bay. We gathered samples from soil; stream and sea water; animals, including rats, crayfish, mosquitoes and sea urchins; and plants, including trees, ferns and algae; and much more. “Understanding sources of shared microbial diversity in ecosystems allows us to better understand the origins and assembly processes of symbiotic microbes and their role in preserving biodiversity and ecosystem services,” said Anthony Amend, lead author of the study and associate professor in Pacific Biosciences Research Center (PBRC). “If we want to restore native plants and animals to an area, we may need to think about restoring the source environments for their microbiomes as well. Microbes are yet another way that organisms are connected to the environment.” This work shines light on the diversity and distribution of microbiomes at a landscape scale, an approach made possible by the unique structure and habitat diversity of Hawaiian watersheds. Read more at https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2022/08/12/waimea-valley-bioblitz/

Our computational work at C-MĀIKI is in large part made made possible by the C-MĀIKI Gateway and MetaFlow|mics pipeline, for These tools help accelerate microbiome research automating the processing of microbiome data and packaging high performance computing resources and storage in a web-based interface. Mahalo Sean Cleveland and Cédric Arisdakessian for bringing this platform to life! Read more at https://web.archive.org/web/20220712001819id_/https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3491418.3530291

The M4 (Māiki Mānoa Microbiome Meeting) seminar series continues this semester with a line up of great talks! This fall semester, the M4 seminar series will convene weekly on Wednesdays at 12PM in Biomed T211. Date Speaker Institution 13-Sep-23 Elizabeth Gross Dept. of Mathematics, UH-Manoa 20-Sep-23 Masato Yoshizawa School of Life Sciences, UH-Manoa 27-Sep-23 Joanne Yew PBRC, UH-Manoa 04-Oct-23 Rebecca Chong School of Life Sciences, UH-Manoa 11-Oct-23 Joao Araujo (virtual) New York Botanical Garden 18-Oct-23 TBD 25-Oct-23 Danya Weber PBRC, UH-Manoa/Zoology Graduate Program 01-Nov-23 Andrea Jani PBRC, UH-Manoa 08-Nov-23 Alika Maunakea JABSOM, UH-Manoa 15-Nov-23 Kiana Frank PBRC, UH-Manoa 22-Nov-23 Zhiyan "Rock" Du MBBE, UH-Manoa 29-Nov-23 Sally Irwin STEM Department, UH-Maui College 06-Dec-23 Nicole Hynson PBRC, UH-Manoa 13-Dec-23 Jennifer Martiny School of Biological Sciences, UC-Irvine

C-MĀIKI faculty member Masato Yoshizawa and his team have been studying the effect that a ketogenic diet can have on Mexican tetra fish behavior. Their team has received a five-year $1.5M National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Sciences grant to study the genetic and metabolic bases of repetitive behaviors. This research aims to develop new treatments for repetitive behavior-associated disorders and/or repetitive behavior-prone animals in captivity. https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2023/10/30/investigate-causes-repetitive-behaviors/

Advanced Science News has featured research from C-MĀIKI faculty member Masato Yoshizawa! Masato has been studying the effect that a ketogenic diet has on cavefish that display autism-like behaviors. Read more about his research in the article from ASN. https://www.advancedsciencenews.com/cavefish-provide-clues-to-the-keto-diets-effect-on-autism-like-behavior/

Sean Swift, former C-MĀIKI lab technician and current PhD candidate in Dr. Craig Nelson's lab recently presented new results from Waimea at the Spring 2024 M4 Seminar! Check out the recording of his talk here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Yj4JnRGXHnMsHwX1cmEvNL6277AKykJm/view?ts=66061527

The research of C-MĀIKI Director, Nicole Hynson, has been featured in the Smithsonian magazine! This article highlights the efforts of the Hynson lab in utilizing mycorrhizal fungi in na'u (Gardenia brighamii) restoration. Can Fungi Save This Endangered Hawaiian Tree?