Microbes and Microbiome

Shaping your metabolism – gut microbiota and the endocannabinoidome 

October 11, 2022

With the ultimate goal of finding ways to address obesity in humans, Dr. Cristoforo Silvestri is investigating and testing promising compounds that work through the gut microbiota-endocannabinoidome axis.

How hibernation and pesticides disturb the bee gut microbiome

August 30, 2022

Without bees on planet Earth, our human population would be in serious trouble. Since bees perform 80% of the global agricultural pollination, in their absence we would lack the pollination of most flowers, fruit and vegetables...

A glimpse into the microbial RNA world

June 28, 2022

Since isolating RNA from microbiome samples is often challenging, our experts give you valuable tips to identify all key microbial players.

Where in the world is Liana?

March 30, 2022

Liana's blog will give you a deep insight into her microbiology research and life as a traveling scientist, so you feel inspired to start your own adventures.

Set up for life: How breastfeeding benefits preterm infants

February 22, 2022

Discover the vital role that breast milk can play in reducing preterm infant mortality caused by NEC and other gut disease. See QIAGEN products that can help infant gut microbiome research.

Food for thought – how do emulsifiers affect the human gut?

February 11, 2022

Discover how dietary emulsifiers affect the human gut microbiota. See QIAGEN products that can find microbiome changes impacting our long-term health.

Getting ahead of the next outbreak: the predictive power of wastewater monitoring

July 27, 2021

When dealing with a global pandemic such as COVID-19, every day counts. To better respond to a local surge in infections, early detection is of vital importance.

Meet the creators of Gut Check, the popular microbiome board game A gut instinct for gaming – how David Coil made microbes fun for all

February 16, 2021

At this very moment, a fierce competition is playing out in the dark recesses of your intestines. Invisibly, of course. But if you open up the board game Gut Check, all will be revealed. Laid out before you is a collection of beneficial microbes, opportunistic microbes and pathogens, intermingling and cancelling each other’s effects. The result: a dramatic battle to improve or harm your health.

How the microbiome influences mosquito populations

November 7, 2020

Around the world, the microorganisms that cause some of our most deadly – and therefore feared – diseases are borne by mosquitoes. The Aedes genus of mosquitoes are known to spread Dengue Fever, Yellow Fever, Chikungunya and Zika viruses.

Microbiome Sample Preparation – Tips and Tricks 

September 2020

From the human gut to varied environments such as Antarctic soil, ocean water, or acidic hot spring biofilms, microbiome can be found in diverse conditions. Regardless of the origin of the sample, microbiome researchers require high yields and unbiased results to analyze microbial communities.

Leveraging the microbiome to improve pregnancy outcomes in African American communities

August 06, 2020

Expectant mothers have a lot of things to consider when trying to keep themselves and their pregnancies healthy. With stress, food and environmental factors already being considered as influences on her overall health and wellbeing...

Improving cattle feed efficiency for sustainable beef production and increased food availability

April 1, 2020

Intensively-farmed livestock is a high-cost industry with global implications¹. With our high dependency on meat for our proteins, feeding the world is an ever-growing challenge. According to...

Meet Celia Diez Lopez

September 24, 2019

As a part of our microbiome research interview series, we spoke with Ms. Celia Diez Lopez, a Ph.D. candidate from the Department of Genetic Identification, Erasmus Medical Centre Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Ms. Diez Lopez is conducting...

Meet the Microbiome Researcher: Paula Lado

August 31, 2019

Summer is here in the northern hemisphere and tick season is upon us. While for many, this comes with no small amount of concern for tick-borne diseases, for Paula Lado tick season means...

Chew on this: Historic “gum” records DNA from human ancestors in Scandinavia

July 10, 2019

When telling you to throw out your gum, neither you nor your grade-school teachers ever expected research like this. In the quest to find ancient DNA left by our ancestors, a group of researchers analyzed mastics found at a Mesolithic site...

Cracking the microbiome-cancer connection: Meet Wadie D. Mahauad-Fernandez, PhD, postdoctoral oncological research fellow

June 20, 2019

The cutting edge of cancer research is finding connections between tumor growth and the composition of gut microbiomes. Wadie D. Mahauad-Fernandez, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral oncology fellow at Stanford University, in Stanford, Calif.

Best practices for fecal handling and storage before nucleic acid isolation

June 9, 2019

Getting biodiversity data from fecal samples is tricky. How materials are handled and stored can mean the difference between accurately pinpointing diverse and delicate gut flora and getting woefully unclear sequencing data...

A whole world in an apple: Meet Dr. Susan Whitehead, assistant professor of Biological Science at Virginia Tech

May 29, 2019

For new assistant professor Susan Whitehead, Ph.D., from Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, V.A., the outdoors has always held her interest. A simple summer project, however, encouraged her to turn her gaze further into the microbiome...

Exploring the intersection of cancer and the microbiome: Meeting Jie (Angela) Chen, MD, emerging microbiome researcher

May 6, 2019

When emerging science, personal curiosity and strong desire to help others collide, a research physician must heed the call. Such is the case with Jie (Angela) Chen, MD, PhD student at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

Balancing behavior and the microbiome: Meet Els van der Goot

April 15, 2019

Els van der Goot, PhD student from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, is building connections, bridging the gaps in knowledge between behavior, biology and the microbiome.

Meet a microbiome researcher: Q&A with Dr. Erika Ganda

August 21, 2018

As a part of our Microbiome research interview series, we spoke with Dr. Erika Ganda from the department of Food Science, Cornell University, New York. Erika is a microbiome researcher with a background in veterinary medicine, epidemiology...

New advances in microbial community profiling: A future without bias

June 12, 2018

The foundation for the study of microbial communities are multiplex PCR and 16S and 18S rRNA gene sequencing analysis1. Using high throughput sequencing in the analysis of microbial communities has led to the new scientific field...

Meet a microbiome researcher: Q&A with Dr. Aaron Ericsson

April 20, 2018

As a part of our Microbiome research interview series, we spoke with Dr. Aaron Ericsson. He is Director of the University of Missouri Metagenomics Center and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology at the...

Meet a microbiome researcher: Q&A with Dr. Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe

February 19, 2018

As a part of our Microbiome research interview series, we spoke with Dr. Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Arrieta lab, departments of Physiology & Pharmacology, and Pediatrics...