Microbial Mondays

Picture a field of wheat blowing in the wind. It looks serene, and the wheat looks healthy - especially because the wheat farmer has sprayed a triazole fungicide to stop mold from damaging the crop. 

Spraying antifungals is pretty much standard. It happens every season, all over the world.

But at the same time, we want to avoid a future where overuse of antifungal agents in one area of life, like farming, could mean that the drug no longer works when we need it to in another area of life - like human health.

Today, we’re diving into the weird and wonderful world of fungi, what makes them unique, what we need to consider when using antifungals for different purposes, and the impact that this could have on our lives in the future. Join us to learn more!

Key References:

• ​https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/hcp/clinical-care/index.html
• ​ https://www.nature.com/articles/s44259-024-00055-2
• ​ https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wsbm.1610
• ​ https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/news/one-health-eu-agencies-unite-tackle-azole-fungicide-resistance-aspergillus-fungi
• ​ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9259907/
• ​ https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(25)01371-6

Genetics and food exposure in early life can impact if you develop allergies or not. But those aren't the only factors at play!

This month we are continuing on the topic of allergies, and this time we will explore how our microbiome and exposure to microbes can impact our risk of developing allergies.

We talk about how a diverse microbiome can reduce your risk of allergies and why, and what happens when your microbiome is less well-balanced.

And to end - have you heard of the hygiene hypothesis? Well, it has an update... Listen in to find out more about the 'old friends' hypothesis!

Key References:

• Tan J et al. Your Regulatory T Cells Are What You Eat: How Diet and Gut Microbiota Affect Regulatory T Cell Development. Front Nutr. 2022. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.878382
• Gang Y et al. Risk and protective factors for food allergy: an in-depth analysis of dietary patterns and specific dietary components. Allergy Medicine 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.allmed.2025.100076
• Kim CH & Baker JR. Regulation of allergies across the body by microbial metabolites. Exp Mol Med 2026. https://doi.org/10.1038/s12276-026-01642-1
• Rook GAW. The old friends hypothesis: evolution, immunoregulation and essential microbial inputs. Front Allergy 2023. https://doi.org/10.3389/falgy.2023.1220481
• Azad MB et al. Infant gut microbiota and the hygiene hypothesis of allergic disease: impact of household pets and siblings on microbiota composition and diversity. Allergy Asthma Clin Immunol 2013. https://doi.org/10.1186/1710-1492-9-15

Picture this: it’s a clear, bright morning in spring. You’re walking through the park with a friend, and the warm breeze floats delightfully over your skin, bringing with it the fragrant scent of local flowers in bloom, and the dewy smell of fresh grass. You smile, feeling a wave of contentment.

“Don’t you love this time of year?” you ask your friend.

He sneezes. “I hate it! It’s allergy season again!”

Spring is a time that some people can enjoy the blooming life all around them, while others are a sneezing, stuffed up mess. Why is that?

In this episode, we’ll try to answer this question. 

• ​Du Toit G... LEAP Study Team. Randomized trial of peanut consumption in infants at risk for peanut allergy. N Engl J Med. 2015 Feb 26;372(9):803-13. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1414850. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1414850
• ​FARE Blog: Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the LEAP Study. https://www.foodallergy.org/fare-blog/celebrating-10th-anniversary-leap-study

In the last years, especially when the first HPV vaccine came out in 2006, we have heard a lot of commotion around this HPV vaccine and HPV’s link to cancer.

In today’s episode, we share the story of how scientists discovered the link between HPV and cancer, and how the HPV vaccine works.

In the last episode of Microbial Mondays, we covered what happens to our immune systems during space flight… but what about the microbes we bring with us?

This month, join us in exploring how flying into space can impact microbial life from earth!

Main publication discussed:

Wilson et al., Space flight alters bacterial gene expression and virulence and reveals a role for global regulator Hfq, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104 (41) 16299-16304, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0707155104 (2007).

Humans have been heading into space to explore beyond earth for decades already. But when we head beyond our own atmosphere, what happens to our immune system?

In this episode, we dive into astro-immunology: a sub-field of immunology that focuses on how our immune system responds to spaceflight.

Let's dive in!

Key reference:

Winer D.A. et al. Astroimmunology: the effects of spaceflight and its associated stressors on the immune system. Nat Rev Immunol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-025-01226-6

The summer of 2016 was warm in Siberia. So warm that the permafrost melted more than usual… releasing a dangerous microbe out onto the surface.

In this episode, we dive into this historical example of an old microbe emerging from the permafrost, talk about how microbes can survive in the deep cold… and idee should be worried about what else might emerge.

Have you ever wondered how our immune system finds the balance in attacking invading viruses and bacteria that try to enter our bodies, but not attacking our own body cells?

The groundbreaking discoveries concerning this topic, called 'peripheral immune tolerance', by Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025! It tells us a lot about how the immune system functions in health and disease!

In this episode, we dive into:

• the discoveries that led to winning this year's Nobel Prize,
• Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi's journey to get to these discoveries,
• what impact these discoveries have had in the past, still have now, and will have in the future!

This podcast episode was created based on the Popular Science Background and Scientific Background published on nobelprize.org . If you are interested in learning more, read here: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2025/press-release/

Welcome to our Halloween special!

Once your heart stops, what happens to all of the microbes that call your body home?

Tonight, we explore the silent cities left behind when we die. Scientists call this the necrobiome: the community of microbes that thrive on and around decomposing bodies.

In this episode we explore how microbes take over our bodies after death, the impact that decomposing bodies can have on the environment around them, and take a look at how microbial activity can even help forensic scientists estimate time of death.

Let's dive into this spooky topic together!

More Reading & Sources:

• Necrobiome framework for bridging decomposition ecology of autotrophically and heterotrophically derived organic matter, Benbow et al. 2018
• A conserved interdomain microbial network underpins cadaver decomposition despite environmental variables, Burcham et al. 2024
• Microbial community coalescence and nitrogen cycling in simulated mortality decomposition hotspots, Keenen et al. 2023

• BBC: Rewilding death: The plan to restore the necrobiome

Where did SARS-CoV-2 come from?

In this episode of Microbial Mondays, we unpack the findings from the WHO’s Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO)’s recent report. We revisit key theories, from a natural spillover event involving bats or intermediate hosts, to the lab leak hypothesis—and discuss why neither can be dismissed outright.

Join us as we explore what’s known, what’s missing, and why uncovering the virus’s origins matters for preventing future pandemics.

More reading

We covered this topic back in a blog series in 2021:

• Part 1: ​https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/lab-leaks-and-affinis-excrement-or-how-a-scientist-thinks
• ​Part 2: https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/where-did-the-virus-come-from-part-ii

Read the SAGO report: https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/independent-assessment-of-the-origins-of-sars-cov-2-from-the-scientific-advisory-group-for-the-origins-of-novel-pathogens