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Check out this great Science article highlighting C-MĀIKI's world class environmental microbiology research! The feature is based on C-MĀIKI member Anthony Amend's talk at the Ecological Society of America's annual meeting. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/08/no-microbiome-island-unprecedented-survey-hawaiian-valley-reveals?utm_campaign=news_daily_2019-08-28&et_rid=17101647&et_cid=2964879

The University of Hawai‘i has joined forces with dozens of microbiome initiatives across the country to form the Microbiome Centers Consortium (MCC). C-MĀIKI is one of 28 research centers in this exciting, collaborative movement to advance the shared understanding of microbiome science! Check out the UH News piece here: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/news/article.php?aId=10389 Image from: http://box5928.temp.domains/~microbm5/

The One Health Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Certificate Program was named one of the winners of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Provost’s Strategic Investment Competition! 16 cross-unit and cross-disciplinary proposals were selected to receive a total of $750,000 in start-up funding. C-MĀIKI members Margaret McFall-Ngai, Nicole Hynson, Matthew Medeiros, and Nhu Nguyen will be part of a dynamic, cross-disciplinary team of UH faculty from the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM), the Office of Public Health Studies in the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work (MBTSSW), the Pacific Biosciences Research Center (PBRC) in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) and the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR). Through this program, undergraduate students will explore the interconnected realms of human health, animal/plant health and environmental health, and develop valuable professional and academic skillsets. Check out the article here (click on the "One Health Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Certificate Program" tab): https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2020/02/18/provost-strategic-investment-competition/

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/