2026 Midwest Microbiome Symposium Schedule Download (PDF)
2026 Midwest Microbiome Symposium Abstract Book Download (PDF)
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 trials Seyedeh 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 development Audra Crouch, Ohio State University |
| 1:46 – 2:00 pm | Short-term mixed-fiber supplementation associates with selective mucosal microbial shifts and alterations in mucosal metabolism David 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. Pizza provided! |
| 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 Animal Sciences
- 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