The MicrobiomeResearchX (MRX) Podcast

Today’s guest is Mohammad Arifuzzaman from the Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, and one of the 2025 Prize Winners of the NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize. His essay, “Illuminating Microbial Dark Matter,” reveals how changes in diet can bring to light previously unknown molecules made by gut microbes. These hidden microbial products act like messengers, quietly influencing our immunity and metabolism in ways we are only beginning to understand. Mohammad’s work shows how uncovering these signals could lead to precision nutrition and entirely new therapeutic strategies.

Mohammad Arifuzzaman

Illuminating microbial dark matter: Dietary alterations uncover microbial regulation of immunity and metabolism.

Science 389,38-38(2025).

DOI:10.1126/science.adz0502

Today’s guest is Ayele Argaw-Denboba from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany, and one of the 2025 Prize Winners of the NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize. is essay, “The gut microbiome–germline axis,” shows that disturbances in a father’s gut microbes can alter sperm and pass on health risks to the next generation — but restoring the microbiome can reverse these effects.

Ayele Argaw-Denboba

The gut microbiome–germline axis: Does a prospective father’s gut microbiota matter?

Science 389,38-38 (2025).

DOI:10.1126/science.adz0492

Today’s guest is Djenet Bousbaine from Stanford University, the 2025 Grand Prize winner of the NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize. Her essay, “Skin microbiota: the vaccine we were already wearing,” shows how the microbes living on our skin quietly train our immune system. And now, by working with these microbes, her team is pointing us towards the possibility of safe, needle-free vaccines.

Djenet Bousbaine

 The vaccine we all wear: Skin microbiota can be engineered into topical vaccines.

Science 389, 37-38 (2025).

DOI:10.1126/science.adz0485

Our guest today is Lina Yao at Harvard Medical School who is a finalist of the 2024 NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize for his essay entitled " Breaking boundaries: Bacteria act as architects of host T cell modulators using bile acids.”  

Details about the prize-winning essay
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq2341

Lina Yao 
Breaking boundaries: Bacteria act as architects of host T cell modulators using bile acids.
Science385,37-37(2024).
DOI:10.1126/science.adq2341

Our guest today is Brittany Needham at Indiana University who is a finalist of the 2024 NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize for his essay entitled " Exposed wires: A microbial metabolite influences myelination in the brain.”  

Details about the prize-winning essay
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq2344

Brittany Needham 
Exposed wires: A microbial metabolite influences myelination in the brain. 

Science 385,37-37(2024). 
DOI:10.1126/science.adq2344

Our guest today is Kazuki Nagashima at Stanford University, who is the grand prize winner of the 2023 NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize for his essay entitled "Blockbuster T cells in the gut: A high-resolution view of immune modulation by the gut microbiome is presented.”  

Details about the prize-winning essay
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq2335
Kazuki Nagashima

Blockbuster T cells in the gut: A high-resolution view of immune modulation by the gut microbiome is presented. 

Science385,36-37(2024).
DOI:10.1126/science.adq2335

Our guest today is Christoph A. Thaiss the Microbiology Department of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who is a finalist of the 2023 NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize for his essay entitled "A microbiome exercise: gut-brain connections drive the motivation to work out.”  

Details about the prize-winning essay

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi6329

Essay: A microbiome exercise

Science, 381, 6653, p. 38, 2023. 

DOI: 10.1126/science.adi6329

Related research 

L. Dohnalová et al A microbiome-dependent gut-brain pathway regulates motivation for exercise. 

Nature, 612(7941):739-747, 2022. 

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05525-z. E

Our guest today is Christopher Stewart of the Translational and Clinical Research Institute at Newcastle University, who is a finalist of the 2023 NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize for his essay entitled "Diet-microbe-host interaction in early life: breastmilk bioactives are important to infant microbiome.”  

Details about the prize-winning essay

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi6318

Essay: Diet-microbe-host interaction in early life

Science, 381, 6653, p. 38, (2023)

DOI: 10.1126/science.adi6318

Related research 

C. J Stewart et al, Temporal development of the gut microbiome in early childhood from the TEDDY study. 

Nature 562 (7728): 583-588, (2018). 

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0617-x. 

Our guest today is Sara Clasen of the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen, Germany, who is the recipient of the 2023 NOSTER & Science Microbiome Grand Prize for her essay entitled, “The sound of silence”. 

Details about the prize-winning essay

https://www.science.org/content/page/2023-noster-science-prize-winners

Essay: The sound of silence

Science, 381, 6653, pp. 37-38,  2023

DOI: 10.1126/science.adi6265

Related research 

Clasen SJ, Bell MEW, Borbón A, Lee DH, Henseler ZM, de la Cuesta-Zuluaga J, Parys K, Zou J, Wang Y, Altmannova V, Youngblut ND, Weir JR, Gewirtz AT, Belkhadir Y, Ley RE. 

Silent recognition of flagellins from human gut commensal bacteria by Toll-like receptor-5. 

Sci Immunol. 2023 Jan 6;8(79):eabq7001.

doi: 10.1126/sciimmunol.abq7001

Our guest today is Jennifer Hampton Hill, University of Utah is the recipient of the 2022 NOSTER & Science Microbiome Grand Prize for her work that “revealed that the resident microbiome is a promising source of previously undiscovered modulators of host β cells.”

Links to details about the prize-winning essay

https://www.science.org/content/page/2022-noster-science-prize-winners

Essay: From bugs to β cells

SCIENCE, 7 Jul 2022, Vol 377, Issue 6602, pp. 164-165 DOI: 10.1126/science.abq6051

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq6051

Latest research 

Jennifer Hampton Hill, Michelle Sconce Massaquoi, Emily Goers Sweeney, Elena S. Wall, Philip Jahl, Rickesha Bell, Karen Kallio, Daniel Derrick, L. Charles Murtaugh, Raghuveer Parthasarathy, S. James Remington, June L. Round, Karen Guillemin

BefA, a microbiota-secreted membrane disrupter, disseminates to the pancreas and increases β cell mass

Cell Metabolism, 34, pp. 1779-1791.e9, (2022)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2022.09.001.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413122003916

Media Coverage 

U OF U HEALTH POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW EARNS PRESTIGIOUS NOSTER AND SCIENCE MICROBIOME PRIZE

https://uofuhealth.utah.edu/newsroom/news/2022/07/hill-noster-science-prize

Jumpstarting insulin production with microbial diversity wins NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/957641

MRX website

https://noster-mrx.net/

2022 NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize: Noster Inc and AAAS announce the grand winner and finalists of the 2022 NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize

https://noster-mrx.net/post/700075484746317824/news-and-events