Today, Dr. Rachel Dutton, Science Resident at the Astera Institute in Berkeley, California, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss the complex (and tasty) microbial communities responsible for cheese as a model system for microbial interactions, as well as her interesting path through science.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Rachel Dutton

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Links for this episode

• An introduction to the idea of sociomicrobiology.
• A more technical review of sociomicrobiology.
• Another more recent technical review of sociomicrobiology. 
• A popular introduction to the ideas behind microbiology and cheesemaking.
• An article about cheese microbes.
• An article about viewing fermented foods like cheese as a way to study microbial ecosystems.
• Evidence for horizontal gene transfer within cheese microbial communities.
• A wonderful video about cheese microbiology.
• A video by Dr. Dutton about her work in cheese microbiology.
• A more recent (2023) video from Dr. Dutton about her cheese community research.
• Dr. Dutton’s website on cheese microbiology.
• Dr. Ben Wolfe’s website on cheese microbiology.
• A podcast with Dr. Dutton from ASM.
• A popular article about Dr. Dutton’s work with cheese microbiology.
• Dr. Dutton’s Wikipedia page!
• An overview of Arcadia Science.
• An overview of the Astera Institute.
• Dr. Dutton’s site at Astera. 

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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