Student Spotlight: Meet MGI doctoral student Heather Murdoch. In Rob Abramovitch’s lab, Heather studies how Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, adjusts its growth depending on the carbon sources available to it during infection.

1/3 How do you teach graduate students to use complex analytical instrumentation? You let them use it. In MGI 991: Metals in Biology, students work hands-on with the advanced elemental analysis and imaging tools in MSU’s QBEAM facility. 🧵

MGI graduate student Maria Guzman took her research to #ASMMicrobe 2026 in Washington, D.C., this summer! 🦠 Maria shared her work with the microbiology community through both a talk and a poster at the American Society for Microbiology's annual meeting.

Congratulations to MGI DO/PhD student Mehdi Abed, who welcomed the MSU COM Class of 2030 at this week’s White Coat Ceremony! As Student Association President, Mehdi shared a message of collaboration, humility and community. Way to represent MGI, Mehdi! 💚

Congratulations to MGI Ph.D. candidate Maddy Quinlan, who received an @asm.org award for her poster presentation at the 2026 Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages Meeting in Madison! 🎉🦠 We love seeing our students & their research recognized by the microbiology community. Well done, Maddy!

MGI grad student Aram Khoshnaw has been appointed to a position in the Integrative Pharmacology Science Training Program, supported by the IPSTP T32. These positions are highly competitive and selective and will provide a full year of support. Read more: tinyurl.com/bdzdtfkc

Congratulations to MGI Prof. Andrea Amalfitano on being featured in the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine's 2026 College of Osteopathic Medicine Research Report. The story highlights his work advancing gene and immune-based therapies for rare diseases. tinyurl.com/mrxbnswz

Exciting new research from the Reguera Lab! Turns out that small changes in the environment make a big difference in the Geobacter cell envelope! Read more below!

Gemma Reguera 🌎@microgem.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Latest from my lab‼️ We show how cation chemistry controls the structure of the Gram-negative cell envelope and provides reciprocal control of piliation and vesiculation. In Geobacter, this impacts extracellular electron transfer and biomineralization. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Next up in our Micro Biography series, meet Bryce Waller - an MGI grad student in the Bonito Lab working on developing sustainable materials using fungi. Learn more about him and his research here: tinyurl.com/52rack9b

Five students participated in this year's Summer Research Opportunity Program, also known as SROP. They worked in labs, conducted research, and then ended the summer by giving presentations and posters. Thank you to our MGI mentors for making it possible!

Congratulations to MGI doctoral student Ira Zibbu @coolscootre.bsky.social, who received a Graduate Student Excellence Award at the Society for Molecular Biology & Evolution meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark! @official-smbe.bsky.social

MGI grad student Kendall Mara recently attended the 26th Biennial Congress of the International Organization for Mycoplasmology in Krakow, Poland, where she presented research from her thesis & work from MSU's VDL. Congrats on representing MGI on the international stage!

Meet Sophia Liberto, an MGI graduate student working in the Hulin Lab. 🍒🔬 Sophia studies bacterial pathogens that cause canker disease in stone fruit crops, such as cherries. @msunatsci.bsky.social @plantdisease.bsky.social

Congratulations to MGI graduate student Bobby Zuniga who has received a Ruth L. Kirschstein NIH fellowship! Zuniga conducts his research in the lab of Qing-Sheng Mi at @henryfordhealth.bsky.social, where he studies how the immune system develops and responds to disease.

MGI Prof. Chris Adami will be one of the speakers at this year's Megacampus Summit in Dubai on Nov. 18-21. He will join speakers such as filmmaker James Cameron and chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen at the event, which draws 10,000 people! summit.megacampus.com/dubai26/

New research led by MGI Asst. Prof. Yu Zhang shows how immune cells create millions of antibodies from one genome: DNA loops bring distant gene segments together. The study reveals how two proteins shape this process and may shed light on diseases like leukemia & lymphoma.

Congratulations to MGI Hannah Distinguished Professor Rich Lenski on his new book, "A Primer for Experimental Evolution!"

Richard Lenski@relenski.bsky.social · 4mo ago

New book "A Primer for Experimental Evolution" with coauthors Michael Rose, Margarida Matos, and Joe Graves. www.worldscientific.com/worldscibook... A compact primer for students and colleagues interested in planning and designing experiments to address questions in evolutionary biology.

MGI Prof & Assoc Chair Kefei Yu collaborated with Jens Schmidt and Mariia Mikhova on a new paper out in Molecular Cell today. The work examines how immune cells control which antibody type they express to fight infectious diseases. Learn more below & read the news article here: tinyurl.com/5n75znjz

MSU researchers detail molecular mechanisms driving adaptive immune response | College Of Human Medicine

MSU researchers developed a tool to observe complex molecular choreography in real time. Their work is shedding light on one of the enduring mysteries of the process: how a key protein locates the cor...

tinyurl.com

Jens Schmidt@jenscs83.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Out today in Molecular Cell! Lead by Mariia Mikhova and in collaboration with Kefei Yu’s lab @msumgi.bsky.social we dug into the molecular mechanism of class switch recombination in B cells using simultaneous RNA and protein single-molecule imaging. 1/n www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

MGI's Dr. Ned Walker did an interview with the morning news yesterday about this summer's mosquito outlook. Thank you for sharing your expertise with the community!

Next up in our Micro Biography series is Dr. Ned Walker, a University Distinguished Professor in MGI and Entomology who studies mosquito and tick-borne diseases. Read about his journey and research here: tinyurl.com/mrxthcxx

Former MSU president Teresa Woodruff has launched a new website and podcast focused on reproductive science and human health. We love to see members of the MSU community continuing to make science accessible and engaging for broader audiences. Check it out at repro101.com.

Congratulations to Dohun Pyeon, PhD @dpyeon.bsky.social, on being named an MSU Research Foundation Distinguished Professor! Pyeon recently led a team that discovered how HPV-positive tumors evade the immune system, a breakthrough that could help advance more effective cancer treatments.

Congratulations to MGI graduate student Danielle Gregory of the Manning/Dodd Lab for receiving the Sustainable Development Goals Poster Award at the ASM Microbe conference this past week! Great work!

Congratulations to MGI graduate students Kevin Santiago-Morales and Jessica Lysne who were awarded Dissertation Fellowships from the College of Natural Science and the Graduate School! 👏 Read more here: tinyurl.com/4cps8jza

MGI graduate student Soledad Soverina has been awarded the prestigious Barnett Rosenberg Endowed Research Assistantship! Her research focuses on immune responses in the lungs to M. abscessus, a bacterium that can cause serious respiratory infections. Read more: tinyurl.com/4mxc5d4j

Congratulations to MGI MSU Foundation Distinguished Professor Dohun Pyeon on his induction into the AAAS! Dr. Pyeon was recognized for his research into HPV-associated cancers. Read more here: tinyurl.com/yc3x65yz @dpyeon.bsky.social

MGI Professor @chrisadami.bsky.social will be speaking at the virtual Ellison Insights Forum at 10 am on June 12th. The theme of the event is how AI could accelerate cancer drug discovery and treatment. To hear his talk, you can register for free at emila.org/insights.

Congratulations to MGI grad student Emma Bush, a recipient of the inaugural @msunatsci.bsky.social SMART Fellowship! Emma uses next-gen sequencing to explore how chromatin structure shapes antibody gene recombination in B cells—work that is essential to understanding adaptive immunity.

Three graduate students working in MGI labs have been awarded prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowships which will provide three years of support to these outstanding young researchers. Read more about Elena Renshaw, Alice Walker, and Bryce Waller: tinyurl.com/4v5cc5fs

Grace Semaan, an MGI graduate student working in Dr. Jim Moran's lab, has won the Alpha Lambda Delta Maria Leonard Graduate Fellowship. This $7000 award will support her graduate studies & professional development.