June 2, 2022 Newsletter

From Suzanne (Sue) Ishaq, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Animal and Veterinary Sciences
Univ. of Maine, School of Food and Agriculture

I would like to invite you to attend the 2022 Microbes and Social Equity summer symposium! This will be held over zoom on July 18 - 22, 2022, 12:30 - 16:00 EST. Registration is free, and anyone is welcome. The details of the program can be found here. 

Symposium description: To understand a microbiome, you must learn about the bustling community of microorganisms and the complex ecosystems they live in, because one cannot exist without the other. So, too, does microbiome research rely on understanding the lives and ecology of humans, because there is no aspect of human life which does not involve microbes in some way. To become better microbiome researchers, we must understand social and environmental contexts which affect humans and, in many cases, prevent them from making choices which result in beneficial microbial exposures. This symposium will focus on developing research skills to create transformative research, including context-aware experimental designs, engaging community stakeholders as research partners, writing transdisciplinary papers, translating research into policy, and creating curriculum which melds microbes and social equity.

Added bonus this years : I am hosting a 1-credit special topics grad course (AVS 590-0980: Research skills combining microbes and social equity) for UMaine students which revolves around the symposium and research skills development. 

Best,
Sue

James W. Jarvis, MD, FAAFP, Director of Clinical Education, Eastern Maine Medical Center, Senior Physician Executive, System Incident Command, Northern Light Health and a member of the Institute External Advisory Committee answered questions on NPR Maine Calling about Maine's spiking Covid rate, vaccines, testing, treatment, masks and more.

Alan Cobo-Lewis was interviewed by Maine Beacon about raising direct care worker wages.

Alan Cobo-Lewis, associate professor of psychology and director of the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies, spoke to the Maine Beacon about the importance of raising direct care worker wages in order to eliminate large waitlists for various home or community-based care services. Cobo-Lewis said that even the long-sought raise to $15.94 an hour wouldn’t be able to compete in today’s labor market against less-demanding jobs. News from the States and Patch shared the Maine Beacon report. 

2021 Maine Forest Tick Survey results released
Nine southern and coastal Maine counties had a three-fold increase in the ticks in 2021 compared to the same time the year before, according to the latest results of the Maine Forest Tick Survey at the University of Maine. Allison Gardner, assistant professor of arthropod vector biology and principal investigator of the study says “These findings complement a growing body of literature that suggests that land management history can dramatically alter the distribution and infection prevalence of disease vector tick species.”

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Where will the AI revolution take pharmaceutical science?

The Symposium on Risks and Opportunities of AI in Clinical Drug Development is an event jointly sponsored by Pfizer Inc., Northeastern University, the American Statistical Association (ASA), the Statistics Department and Data Science Institute at Columbia University, and OHDSI.

This event is designed to serve as a platform for distinguished statisticians, data scientists, regulators, and other professionals to address the challenges and opportunities of AI in pharmaceutical medicine; to foster collaboration among industry, academia, regulatory agencies, and professional associations; and to propose recommendations with policy implications for proper implementation of AI in promoting public health.

Read more and register

 
This year, our annual Women in Bioscience event will be held in collaboration with The Roux institute to celebrate both women in bioscience and Maine’s growing life sciences ecosystem.

The event will feature an overview of BioConnects New England coalition and a moderated panel discussion of acclaimed female scientists and professionals focusing success stories and challenges, along with practical concepts to advance women in the bioscience industry. The panel will be followed by a networking reception with a cash bar available and light appetizers included on us.

Read more and register

Virtual Event via Zoom
Join MaineHealth Innovation in celebrating MaineHealth care team members who are developing innovative solutions to unmet care needs.
MaineHealth Innovation is fostering a culture of innovation and believes by leveraging the insights of our care team members and providing education, connections and funding to move innovative solutions forward, we will transform care. Come explore how MaineHealth Innovation is transforming care and how, together, we are fulfilling MaineHealth’s vision of working together so our communities are the healthiest in America.
In this virtual event, hear from our amazing MaineHealth innovators in a series of panel discussions that address the incredible work happening system-wide in emergency medicine, primary care, pediatrics, women’s health, and the patient experience. Learn what sparked their innovation ideas and the impact our innovators have on our MaineHealth community!
Learn more and register

 

Magnifying Discovery: A Closer Look at Microscopy at MDIBL 
MDI SCIENCE CAFÉ
June 13, 2022  5:00 - 6:00 pm Online  Register Now
While scientific images are often stunning from an artistic point of view, for scientists, the value of these images is in the answers they can provide to complex research questions. Join Frédéric Bonnet, Ph.D., manager of the MDI Biological Laboratory Light Microscopy Facility (LMF); Marko Pende, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the Murawala Lab; and Karissa Tilbury, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at University of Maine in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering as they discuss their uses of microscopy.

Citizen Scientists Help Gather COVID-19 Data
As COVID-19 cases continue to rise across Maine and New England, MDIBL has unveiled a new tracing app. The citizen science project will help determine the effectiveness of COVID-19 home test kits in detecting the SARS CoV-2 virus. The project is hosted on Anecdata.org and open to participants over the age of 18.

Annual Meeting of the Corporation
Please join us at 10:00 am on Thursday July 28, for our Annual Meeting of the Corporation. The meeting will be held as a hybrid event with in person attendance at Maren Auditorium on the MDI Biological Laboratory campus and online via Zoom.
This online event is free and open to the public, but requires pre-registration.

Mechanisms of Cellular Resilience Symposium 2022
August 12-14, 2022
MDI Biological Laboratory
This 3-day symposium will bring together scientists at the forefront of cellular resilience, aging, and regeneration research to bridge these disciplines.

 

 

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