May 11-13, 2026 | Partners in OneHealth: Hosts, Harvest and Habitats
I Hotel and Illinois Conference Center, Champaign, Illinois
The Midwest Microbiome Symposium is a regional research conference for students, trainees, and scientists studying microbiomes across human, animal, agricultural, and environmental systems. The meeting brings together researchers from universities, industry, and government to share new science, present posters and talks, and build collaborations across disciplines, ecosystems, and institutions.
Featured Speakers
Schedule
All events are located in Heritage Hall at the Illinois Conference Center (1902 S 1st St, Champaign, IL 61820) unless otherwise noted.
| Monday, May 11th, 2026 | |
| Time | Agenda |
| 12:00 – 12:30 pm | Registration and light snacks |
| 12:30 – 12:45 pm | Welcome Remarks Angela Kent & Anthony Yannarell, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| Session 1 12:45 – 2:00 pm | Microbial Metabolites in Health and Disease Chair: Sierra Raglin, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| 12:46 – 1:00 pm | Ultra-marathon running reshapes gut microbial aromatic amino acid metabolism and disrupts barrier function Casey Lim, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| 1:01 – 1:15 pm | Indole toxicity on removal of uremic toxin p-cresol, in-vitro study of Thauera aminoaromatica S2Pei-Hsin Wang, University of Washington |
| 1:16 – 1:30 pm | Dietary fiber fermentability and viscosity influence gut microbial metabolites in chronic kidney disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis of animal and clinical trialsSeyedeh Nooshan Mirmohammadali, Purdue University |
| 1:31 – 1:45 pm | Establishing in vivo and in vitro approaches to investigate urobiome metabolism of environmental chemicals and bladder cancer developmentAudra Crouch, Ohio State University |
| 1:46 – 2:00 pm | Short-term mixed-fiber supplementation associates with selective mucosal microbial shifts and alterations in mucosal metabolismDavid Alvarado, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| 2:00 – 2:30 pm | Coffee break |
| Session 2 2:30 – 4:00 pm | Farm to Food – Microbes Across the Food Supply Keynote: Melha Mellata, Iowa State University Chair: Brett Loman, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| 2:31 – 2:45 pm | Effects of high soybean meal inclusion on the gut microbiome of finishing pigs Angel Martinez, South Dakota State University |
| 2:46 – 3:00 pm | Acute azoxystrobin exposure induces gut microbiome disruption and hepatic transcriptional changes in zebrafish Luoyan Duan, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| Keynote 3:01 – 4:00 pm | The Avian Segmented Filamentous Bacteria: A master of gut immunity and microbiome development in early life Melha Mellata, Iowa State University |
| 4:00 – 5:30 pm | Poster Session 1 with light snacks Even number posters presenting |
| 6:30 – 8:30 pm | Trainee Social Event Riggs Brewery, 1901 S High Cross Rd, Urbana, IL 61802 |
| Tuesday, May 12th, 2026 | |
| Time | Agenda |
| 7:30 – 8:15 am | Morning walk – Meet at 7:20 in the iHotel Lobby University of Illinois Arboretum, 1800 S Lincoln Ave, Urbana, IL 61801 |
| 8:00 – 8:45 am | Light breakfast and coffee service |
| 8:45 am | Welcome |
| Session 3 9:00 – 10:30 am | Microbes and Our Water Keynote: Erica Hartmann, Northwestern University Chair: Wei Qin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| 9:01 – 9:15 am | Impact of hybrid capture enrichment and sample preparation methods on ARG detection in wastewater Christopher Owen, University of Illinois Chicago |
| 9:16 – 9:30 am | Combinatorial characterization of drinking water biofilm communities reveals both synergies and negative interactions affecting biomass and chloramine tolerance Jessica Li, University of Michigan |
| Keynote 9:31 – 10:30 am | Ecology and evolution of antimicrobial resistance: the environmental perspective Erica Hartmann, Northwestern University |
| 10:30 – 11:00 am | Coffee break |
| Session 4 11:00 – 12:30 pm | Microbial Drivers of Nitrogen Cycling Keynote: Lydia Zeglin Chair: Angela Kent, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| 11:01 – 11:15 am | Fertilization-conditioned soil microbiomes shape cultivar-dependent assembly of soybean nodule microbiomes Danyang Duan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| 11:16 – 11:30 am | A resource allocation framework for denitrification Dominic Cipti, The Ohio State University |
| Keynote 11:31 – 12:30 pm | Bison and cattle influences on the native tallgrass prairie microbiome Lydia Zeglin, Kansas State University |
| 12:30 – 2:00 pm | Lunch (box lunches provided) + Sponsored talks Chaired by Angela Kent & Anthony Yannarell |
| 12:50 – 1:30 pm | Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center sponsored session |
| 1:30 – 1:45 pm | Metabolon talk: Multiomics microbiome datasets – Josh Simpson |
| Session 5 2:00 – 3:30 pm | Bugs in Bugs Keynote: Cameron Currie Chair: Matt Doremus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| 2:01 – 2:15 pm | Genome-based identification of a novel ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma’ species from environmental insect samples in China Valeria Trivellone, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| 2:16 – 2:30 pm | Effects of Oscillating Temperatures on Reproductive Manipulating Endosymbionts in Spider Host Emily Cook, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Keynote 2:31 – 3:30 pm | Ancient microbiome husbandry in fungus-farming ants Cameron Currie, McMaster University |
| 4:00 – 5:30 pm | Poster Session 2 with light snacks Odd number posters presenting |
| 6:30 – 7:30 pm | Trainee Social Activity Games and crafts in Heritage Hall |
| Wednesday, May 13th, 2026 | |
| Time | Agenda |
| 8:00 – 8:45 am | Light breakfast and coffee service |
| 8:00 – 8:45 am | Midwest Multidisciplinary Microbiome Symposia Board Meeting (closed session – board members only) Houlihan’s, 1902 S 1st St, Champaign, IL 61820 |
| 8:45 am | Welcome |
| Session 6 9:00 – 10:30 am | Microbial Ecology Keynote: Jay Lennon, Indiana University Bloomington Chair: Anthony Yannarell, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| 9:01 – 9:15 am | Untargeted metabolomics reveals metabolic differences between symbiotic and aposymbiotic phenotypes of a facultatively symbiotic temperate coral (Astrangia poculata) Erik Andersson, University of Illinois Chicago |
| 9:16 – 9:30 am | SIPdb: a stable isotope probing database for extending ecological interpretation to amplicon datasets. Alex Batista Trentin, Purdue University |
| Keynote 9:31 – 10:30 am | Microbiomes and climate action: Connecting society initiatives to global change Jay Lennon, Indiana University Bloomington |
| 10:30 – 11:00 am | Coffee break |
| Session 7 11:00 – 12:00 pm | Dietary Fiber, Health, and Resilience Chair: Shannon Sirk, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| 11:01 – 11:15 am | Whole food fibers for support of key gut bacteria for human health Lauren Sofia Yepes, Purdue University. |
| 11:16 – 11:30 am | A dual-color intestinal co-culture platform to evaluate host responses to inulin-derived microbial metabolites Yuxin Wang, Purdue University |
| 11:31 – 11:45 am | Influence of diet on stress-induced HPA axis activation Jordan Rindels, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| 11:46 – 12:00 pm | Gut microbiome and behavior effects on Travelers’ Diarrhea occurrence in a military population Zachary Liechty, Air Force Research Laboratory |
| 12:00 – 1:30 pm | Lunch – Box Lunches Provided |
| 12:30 – 1:15 pm | Trainee Career Panel |
| Session 8 1:30 – 2:15 pm | Discovering Microbial Functions Chair: Patrick Bradley, Ohio State University |
| 1:31 – 1:45 pm | Highly efficient preparation of large functional metagenomic libraries and their application to capture novel antimicrobial resistance genes Terence Crofts, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| 1:46 – 2:00 pm | Assessing the reproducibility of whole-microbial community evolution of AMR: unraveling the contributions of vertical and horizontal gene transfer Lisa Stabryla, University of Illinois at Chicago |
| 2:01 – 2:15 pm | CheckAMG and PhAuxDB enable ecosystem-scale discovery and pangenomic classification of auxiliary viral genes James Kosmopoulos, University of Wisconsin, Madison |
| 2:16 – 2:30 pm | Uncovering biosynthetic gene clusters in phage and giant virus genomes Neha Kashyap, University of Wisconsin, Madison |
| 2:30 – 2:50 pm | Closing ceremony and awards |
Thank you to our symposium sponsors!
Corporate Sponsors
Academic Sponsors
- Cancer Center at Illinois
- Carle R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
- College of Agriculture, Consumer & Environmental Sciences
- College of Veterinary Medicine
- Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering
- Department of Bioengineering
- Department of Crop Sciences
- Department of Food Science & Human Nutrition
- Department of Microbiology
- Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences
- Genomics and Eco-evolution of Multi-scale Symbioses (GEMS)
- Personalized Nutrition Initiative
- Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center
- School of Molecular & Cellular Biology
- Olga G. Nalbandov Lecture Fund