Ever wonder what’s growing on your toothbrush? Today, Dr. Erica Hartmann, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how antimicrobial resistance can occur in the built environment we see all around us every day—and why it is vital to learn more about this association.

Today, Dr. Sam Díaz-Muñoz, Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, as well as a Faculty Member of the Genome Center at the University of California Davis, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how their group, and a growing community of researchers, investigates the social lives of viruses: the many ways that viruses interact and the ways that interactions shape infections and viral evolution.  

Today, Dr. Alex Bisson, Assistant Professor of Biology at Brandeis University, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how he and his collaborators use a variety of tools to study the mechanobiology of archaea (such as how some respond to being “squished”), and how those studies can shed light on the evolution of complex eukaryotes like humans.

Today, Dr. Patrick Schloss, Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine at the University of Michigan, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how the human microbiome is studied, possible pitfalls in such data analysis, and what tools he and his coworkers have developed to lead toward repeatable, hypothesis-driven science.