UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The One Health Microbiome Center (OHMC) in the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State has named five recipients for its 2023-24 Interdisciplinary Innovation Fellowships (IIF) program, which aims to promote collaborative training opportunities for center members and research development.

The program was created in 2022 to enable recipients to expand their expertise and training with short-term experiences in the laboratory of another center faculty member or external colleague to the campus. The goal of this program is to boost the creative capabilities of the community and facilitate collaboration among Microbiome Center members, with an emphasis on connecting traditionally “siloed” units.

“Interdisciplinary Innovation Fellows will embark on transformative investigations that support skill learning and professional development across labs within and beyond Penn State,” said Seth Bordenstein, OHMC director and Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Endowed Chair in Microbiome Sciences. “Most importantly, awardees bring back new cutting-edge skills to their labs and the larger OHMC community, bolstering our microbiome research and educational programs that are among the best in the world.”

There are two types of IIFs: internal fellowships permit trainees to work in the group of another Penn State Microbiome Center group, while external fellowships permit trainees to work in a group outside of the University to support the acquisition and dissemination of new expertise, scientific tools or approaches within Penn State.

“The IIF provided the opportunity to strengthen my collaboration,” said Josephine Wee, 2022-23 fellow and assistant professor of food science.

Another previous fellow and research scientist in the Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, Waleed El Sayed, had similarly positive comments.

“The IIF allowed me to integrate advanced technologies, which enhanced the accuracy of my investigations and elevated the depth of my research outcomes," he said. 

The five 2023-24 recipient proposals and their associated trainees are:

• "Harnessing synthetic biology to study adaptive evolution of nitrogen-fixing bacteria" — Maria Alejandra Gil Polo, doctoral candidate in plant biology, advised by Liana Burghardt, assistant professor of plant biology
• "Assessing the Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines on Respiratory Tract Microbiota in Mice" — Abhinay Gontu, doctoral student in pathobiology, co-advised by Bhushan M. Jayarao, professor, and Suresh Kuchipudi, professor, and supported by Ruth Nissly, assistant research professor, all in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences
• "Microfossil analysis of ancient dental calculus of the Elmina population, Ghana" — Iyunoluwa J. Ademola-Popoola, doctoral student in anthropology, advised by Laura Weyrich, associate professor of anthropology
• "Prediction of Phage Susceptibility of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Using Machine Learning" — Edwin Omar Rivera-López, dual title doctoral student in food science and clinical and translational sciences, advised by Edward Dudley, professor of food science
• "Development of a Granular Hydrogel-Enabled Gut-on-a-Chip Platform for Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research'' — Sina Kherabadi, doctoral student in chemical engineering, advised by Amir Sheikhi, assistant professor of chemical engineering and of biomedical engineering

“I look forward to using this fellowship to get training from Barney Geddes’ Lab at North Dakota State University,” Gil Polo said. “Learning cutting-edge techniques for synthetic biology in rhizobia [model plant-associated bacterium] will enable me to tackle central questions about adaptive evolution.”

The awardees and projects represent the breadth of research within the OHMC. These graduate students are associated with four different Penn State colleges, including the College of Agricultural Sciences, the College of the Liberal Arts, the College of Engineering and the Eberly College of Science.

The Interdisciplinary Innovation Fellowships are awarded annually each summer for up to $5,000, and they are open to active members of the Penn State One Health Microbiome Center, with emphasis given to supporting participation from underrepresented groups.