Jonathan Martinson
 Jonathan Martinson

Speaker: Jonathan Martinson, doctoral student,
Department of Microbiology & Immunology,
Montana State University

Date: Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Time: 5:15 PM
Place: Byker Auditorium, Chemistry & Biochemistry Building
Title: How Does Your Gut Microbiome Change Through Time?

A reception will follow the lecture.

Summary

Over the past two decades, tremendous progress has been made in identifying the microbial species that inhabit the human gut as well as their overall effect on human health. However, little is known about how the gut microbiome varies through time and what factors precipitate changes at the lowest taxonomic level (i.e. bacterial strains).

To address this knowledge gap, Jonathan Martinson was involved in a research project in Seth Walk's MSU lab that enrolled eight healthy adults and collected bi-weekly stool samples from each subject over two years. The lab found a moderate degree of change at the community-level using 16S rRNA sequencing and a high level of change at the strain-level using cultivation/genotyping.

Specifically, Martinson examined strain dynamics of bacteria belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family, which reside in virtually all people. He investigated the metabolic and competitive factors that allow Enterobacteriaceae strains to reside in the human gut for long periods of time and hopes to improve microbiome-directed therapies.

Martinson is the recipient of a 2018 Kopriva Graduate Fellowship.

About the Kopriva Science Seminar Series

Martinson’s lecture is presented by the Kopriva Science Seminar Series, which is funded through an endowment created by Phil Kopriva, a 1957 microbiology graduate from MSU. Kopriva, who died in 2002, also created an endowment to fund the Kopriva Graduate Fellowship Program, which provides support and opportunities for graduate students in the College of Letters and Science, particularly in the biomedical sciences. The series features seminars by MSU graduate students, faculty members and guest speakers.