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Oct. 13, 2024 | Blog Post

On the road again: Highlights from the 2024 NMDC summer conference season

Conferences allow the research community to come together to discuss ideas, learn about new research, and connect with peers and collaborators. This summer from June through August, 11 National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC) team members presented at eight events. We learned about updates across the interdisciplinary microbiome research field, engaged with the research community to learn more about their needs, and shared how our products and community can help their research. At these events, we reached nearly 1,000 researchers through interactive workshops, presentations, and poster sessions. 

NMDC team members who presented about the NMDC this summer.

Team members Julia Kelliher, Kaitlyn Li, Francie Rodriguez, and Kaelan Prime presented at Sequencing to Function: Analysis and Applications for the Future (SFA2F) in Santa Fe. Kelliher gave an overview of the NMDC during one of the talk sessions, while Li, Rodriguez, and Prime engaged with the attendees at the poster session. At the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, (ASMS) annual meeting, team member Paul Piehowski led a workshop on metaproteomics. Kelliher and Leah Johnson connected with the plant community through NMDC workshops at the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) and American Phytopathological Society (APS) annual meetings. NMDC LANL lead Patrick Chain presented a talk at the Ecological Society of America (ESA) annual meeting.

This year, our team hosted several events at the American Society for Microbiology’s (ASM) conference, ASM Microbe 2024, with the help of team member Simon Roux. NMDC Program Lead Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh hosted a half-day “Mini Conference” session entitled, “Microbial Data and Tools without Borders: Advancing an Open Science Ecosystem”. During this session, speakers and panelists from the NMDC, the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), and the International Microbiome and Multi-Omics Standards Alliance (IMMSA), The City University of New York (CUNY), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), and the ASM Advocacy group presented resources and tips for good data stewardship. At the Microbiome “Lounge and Learn” session, Kelliher led discussions on microbiome research and policy.  

Eloe-Fadrosh presented in this year’s ASM President’s Forum: “The Power of Microbial Sciences to Change the World, the keynote session hosted by the ASM President. “It was a great honor to join the ASM President’s Forum and share our experiences in connecting ecosystems — science, infrastructure, and people — of microbiome research,” said Eloe-Fadrosh. Attendees then had the opportunity to participate in the President’s Forum Q&A session to meet with Eloe-Fadrosh the next day.

A collage of NMDC team members presenting and networking at ASM Microbe 2024. Credit: Julia Kelliher

In early August, team members Eloe-Fadrosh, Lee Ann McCue, Mark Miller, Simon Roux, and Montana Smith attended the annual Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC) meeting, GSC24, held in Tucson, Arizona. They hosted a workshop about the challenges in standardizing metadata and implementing standards, and demoed NMDC tools to advance and improve data sharing. Specifically highlighted and demoed was our new product, NMDC Field Notes, a mobile app designed to help researchers collect standardized metadata on-the-go and in the field. At the workshop, researchers excited about microbiome data standards were able to provide valuable feedback about the app and discuss the challenges within their research. Reflecting on her time at GSC24, Smith said, “Attending conferences like GSC24 are invaluable to the NMDC and the GSC. This forum provides a great opportunity to connect with researchers, improve collaboration, and expand knowledge. I especially appreciate experiencing first-hand the scientific community from a variety of fields coming together to move science forward and improve data sharing.”

Group photo from GSC24. Credit: Emilia Gazman

To wrap up the year, the team will be traveling to the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) National Diversity in STEM (NDiSTEM) conference from October 31-November 2 in Phoenix, AZ. If you would like to see which conferences we will be attending in the future and connect with us, follow us on social media or check out the website to see our monthly events calendar! You can also find event information and opportunities in our quarterly newsletter or our community Slack channel. 

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