The University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa (SOEST) awarded Early Career Research Fellowships to three outstanding scholars: Sara Kahanamoku-Meyer, Camille Pagniello and Christopher Wall.

Sara Kahanamoku-Meyer

Kahanamoku-Meyer, a specialist in place-based, ʻŌiwi-led paleoecology, uses paleoecology, applied through a kanaka ʻōiwi (Native Hawaiian) lens, to study the impacts of climate change and colonialism on Pacific marine ecosystems.

“This fellowship will allow me to bring conservation paleobiology—a relatively new focus for �鶹��ý—back to my home community after over a decade living on the continent,” said Kahanamoku-Meyer. “I am particularly excited to be in SOEST, as its faculty, staff, and students all hold a wealth of place-based and interdisciplinary expertise and understand the value of doing research that supports the communities of �鶹��ý.”

Camille Pagniello

Pagniello’s research lies at the intersection of oceanography, engineering, data science and marine biology with a focus on developing new tools and approaches to study fish movement, communication and biodiversity in our changing ocean.

“I will be utilizing data science techniques to extract novel information about the ocean from existing data streams and developing new instrumentation platforms to expand the existing ocean observing network,” said Pagniello. “This will provide an ideal environment for conducting impactful research at the forefront of oceanography and to harness the power of low-cost sensors to address interdisciplinary, sustainability-relevant questions.”

Christopher Wall

Wall is a physiological ecologist whose research has focused on coral reefs, wetlands, forests and alpine lakes. Wall uses stable isotopes and molecular techniques to study symbioses, food webs and microbiomes.

“I will be applying cutting-edge molecular tools to understand the interactions between reef corals and macroalgae in the Main and Northwestern Hawaiian Islands,” said Wall. “This fellowship represents a unique opportunity for me to return to �鶹��ý where I can pursue my passions for coral reef research, student mentorship, and community engagement.”

“After a decade of silence, the SOEST Early Career Research Fellowship has come roaring back to life with our selection of three early career scholars,” said Chip Fletcher, SOEST interim dean. “Our goal is to attract and support stellar talent who are hired as faculty and provided with the authority to write grants and develop prominent research programs. We couldn’t be more pleased with the selection of Sara, Camille, and Chris as our new SOEST Fellows and are looking forward to promoting their future success.”

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Research on the trillions of microorganisms that make up a person’s or ecosystem’s microbiome can lead to medical breakthroughs to treat diseases, such as inflammatory bowel syndrome and diabetes, and discoveries that transform conservation efforts.

According to a study published in and co-authored by a University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa associate professor, microbiome samples from Indigenous communities have the potential to further the fields of medicine, ecology, oceanography and more. However, those same communities often have been excluded from the research process and may miss out on the benefits that result from their contributions to science.

“Unfortunately, Indigenous peoples have experienced exploitation and harm due to microbiome research,” said co-author Rosie Alegado, associate professor in the �鶹��ýMānoa . “In this publication, we propose a framework centered on relationality among Indigenous peoples, researchers and microbes, to guide ethical microbiome research. Our framework foregrounds accountability so that historical power imbalances that favored researcher perspectives and interests can expand to provide space for Indigenous worldviews in pursuit of Indigenous research agency and sovereignty.”

Mutually beneficial partnerships

Ethical inclusion of Indigenous communities in microbiome research can provide benefits for all populations and reinforce mutually beneficial partnerships between researchers and the public.

“Microbes associated with Indigenous peoples have been framed as valuable resources to restore lost microbial diversity and treat chronic disease in industrialized populations, but these research directions often do not center the research needs or interests of the Indigenous communities that researchers rely on for microbiome data,” said Alyssa Bader, lead author of the study and assistant professor at McGill University.

The article lays out a framework for ethical microbiome research practices that include Indigenous communities and ensure that these communities reap the benefits from their contributions. The researchers discuss the Indigenous principle of relationality, in which people are interconnected to each other and the world around them, as a framework to guide human microbiome researchers to work in partnership with Indigenous people.

Moving forward

Moving forward the authors see possible next steps:

• (1) researchers working with Indigenous communities should assess their practices to determine how best to move forward with their research in an ethical manner;
• (2) institutions that support researchers should actively assess their own intellectual property policies to ensure that Indigenous peoples with whom they interact retain appropriate control over their data; and
• (3) funders and institutions should be required to adhere to a relational framework with Indigenous peoples involved in research they support.

The authors say that research with Indigenous communities should be deeply collaborative and uphold Indigenous sovereignties throughout the research process.

“It is essential that Indigenous community partners have key roles in co-development of research questions, establishment of protocols for consent and data stewardship and governance, as well as interpretation and communication of results,” said Alegado.

A national center of excellence at the is doing much more than groundbreaking biomedical research. The (ICEMHH) is building infrastructure and capacity to better �鶹��ý’s human, environmental and economic health.

“We’re designated a center of excellence for microbiome research. It means that people are really looking to �鶹��ý to make the next vanguard discoveries in this field,” said Principal Investigator Anthony Amend, a professor with the . “We’re making incredible discoveries about microbiomes—symbiotic microbes, things like bacteria, fungi, viruses that are inside living hosts, including us—and this underpins life on Earth as we know it.”

Utilizing two grants from the National Institutes of Health (COBRE) totaling more than $21 million, ICEMHH has also developed three state-of-the-art “cores”—an insectary, a microbial genomics laboratory and a microscopy imaging center—for cross-disciplinary public impact research beyond how microbiomes impact human health.

Fruit flies, mosquitos, related diseases

The Insectary for Scientific Training and Advances in Research or InSTAR promotes research on insect microbiomes (the microorganisms of a particular site or habitat) and advanced research in medical entomology (study of insects). It offers insect-rearing equipment and services, a collaborative lab and rearing space, insect containment, and other training and insect-management services.

Amend said, “Users of this core include some of our researchers here at the university and state agencies that are trying to understand disease—how it spreads in our state and how to mitigate those risks.”

Some of those mosquito-carried diseases include zika, dengue fever and malaria.

DNA sequencing, genetic analysis

The Microbial Genomics and Analytical Laboratory or MGAL houses the necessary instrumentation to provide a wide variety of services, such as high-throughput DNA/RNA extractions (to examine molecules that make up our genomes, and to generate “barcodes” for identifying microbes), amplicon library preparation (a highly targeted approach that enables researchers to analyze genetic variation in specific genomic regions), natural product and small molecule analysis, and culturing and storage of microbial strains.

“What this core does is enable somebody to come in with a sample of an animal or a soil sample or any sort of environmental sample. They can bring it to the core, drop it off and in a matter of weeks come out with a list and a figure of all of the microbes and their genomes that are within that sample,” Amend said. “This has really revolutionized our ability to determine ecological processes that are happening on microscales.”

Photons, electrons, more in high resolution

The Microscopy Imaging Center for Research through Observation or MICRO provides researchers with state-of-the-art instrumentation, training and services for high-resolution scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, optical, fluorescence, laser scanning confocal microscopy and image analysis.

“You can look at photons. You can look at electrons—all these different tools to study microbes in their host environments,” Amend said.

The three research cores have already attracted a wide variety of users.

“We host researchers from all over the world, who come to learn about microbes, to use our facilities and to take that knowledge back to their countries, to develop their own expertise,” Amend said.

At the other end of the spectrum, there was the gentleman who walked in off the street and wanted to know which microbes were in his sourdough starter—which he thought made the most delicious bread and helped to keep his skin clear. In a matter of weeks the MGAL facility had a list of all the beneficial bacteria and yeasts contained in that flour and water sample.

Sustaining excellence

COBRE grants are awarded in three sequential five-year phases.

• Phase 1 awards build capacity in an area of biomedical research through the establishment of a center of excellence that helps develop a critical mass of investigators who are able to compete effectively for independent research funding and improve infrastructure in the center’s research area. Researchers in UH’s Phase 1 $10.4-million grant generated almost $22 million in extramural funding.
• Phase 2 awards strengthen successful COBRE Phase 1 centers through continued development of investigators to compete effectively for independent research, pilot project funding and further improvements to research infrastructure at the institution. Improving the three research cores is a focus of UH’s $10.7-million Phase 2 grant.
• Phase 3 awards provide support for maintaining research cores developed during Phases 1 and 2 to sustain a collaborative, multidisciplinary research environment with pilot project programs, mentoring and training components.

�鶹��ýwill be applying for a Phase 3 award to sustain its world-class microbiome research and three research cores. According to Amend, the center is accelerating many kinds of projects that people care about.

He said, “We hope that by launching this center of excellence and by maintaining these three cores, it puts �鶹��ý at the forefront of this research where we can make these discoveries to promote our own livelihoods, economic opportunities and sustainability going into the future.”

—by Kelli Abe Trifonovitch

Small invertebrates and microfauna, such as endangered Hawaiian picture-winged flies, play an important role in providing balance to natural ecosystems.

Scientists at the University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa and the �鶹��ý State Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) Division of Forestry and Wildlife are working together to re-establish picture-winged fly populations, including Drosophila hemipeza, an endangered species. The project’s aim is to help restore ecosystem stability, support natural biodiversity, and reduce the likelihood of the species’ extinction.

Historically, picture-winged fly populations were found at multiple sites in both the Koʻolau and Waiʻanae mountain ranges of Oʻahu. Today, population numbers have greatly diminished, and their range has been significantly reduced. It is believed that Palikea, in the Waiʻanae Range, may be the only remaining site for these flies, where few are left.

“Contributing factors to their decline include a range of issues that a lot of other native insects face: deforestation, predation and competition from invasives, native host plant destruction from pigs, and climate change,” said Kelli Konicek, entomological research technician with the �鶹��ý Invertebrate Program.

In conservation efforts, small invertebrates and microfauna often receive less attention than their larger animal counterparts, but their role in supporting biodiversity and ecosystem health is critical. By conserving endangered species such as the Hawaiian picture-winged fly, DLNR and UH are aiming to create holistic, restored ecosystems.

Improving fly fitness

The researchers are working to stem that tide, rearing D. hemipeza in a lab to introduce into the wild. Through experimentation and ingenuity working with more common and abundant fly species, and leveraging long-term knowledge developed by UH Mānoa researchers at the Hawaiian Drosophila Research Stock Center, the team developed an effective mass rearing regimen that has proven very effective.

“In the lab, we are trying different methods involving the microbiome to improve reproduction and to understand how a switch from a controlled lab diet and environment to field conditions may impact the flies,” said Joanne Yew, a researcher at the (PBRC) in the UH Mānoa and Konicek’s research mentor. “In our experiments, we provide microbe supplements, either from native host plants or from other Hawaiian Drosophila, to developing flies and assess the impact on physiological changes such as egg number and number of offspring.”

The flies are raised in the UH Mānoa , a facility led and managed by a team of PBRC researchers and faculty. Incorporating microbe supplements, the group hopes to ensure the reared flies are fit and healthy enough to be introduced into nature.

Successful reproduction

The team is slowly releasing these flies at a Mānoa Cliff Restoration site, containing several native host plant species in which D. hemipeza are known to breed. Native ʻōhā wai, hāhā and ōpuhe have been planted by a dedicated group of volunteers in cooperation with the Division of Forestry and Wildlife’s Plant Extinction Prevention Program.

Scientists began releasing D. hemipeza in October 2022, and by early January, Konicek observed the first unmarked D. hemipeza at the site, a sign that the species is successfully reproducing on its own.

“It’s really promising to observe flies at the site that we know are not lab-reared,” said DLNR Entomologist Cynthia King. “However, we’ll need to continue the introductions to increase the likelihood the species will establish in the long-term.”

“There is a constant exchange of signals between animals and the microbes in their gut,” said Yew. “What we’re learning from the Hawaiian flies is that the microbiome can have large effects on host reproduction and behavior. Studying the Hawaiian Drosophila and their relationship with their gut microbes will allow us to understand how this sort of inter-kingdom chemical communication shapes the physiology of their host and may influence evolution.”

The keys to saving endangered species and improving the ecology of our communities may be found in thousands of microbiomes and microbes examined by researchers from the ocean to the summit of the Waimea Valley watershed on Oʻahu.

A team of researchers at the University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa (SOEST) conducted this monumental field expedition by sampling more than 3,000 microbes and microbiomes from the ocean of Waimea Bay to the deepest part of Waimea Valley. Their investigation revealed three key discoveries: microbes follow the food web, most of the microbial diversity in a watershed is maintained within the soil and stream water and the local distribution of a microbe predicts how it is distributed globally. Their findings were published recently in the .

Plants and animals are each host to anywhere from dozens to thousands of different microbes, collectively known as microbiomes. They metabolize our food, detoxify contaminants and help fight off disease. Microbes also occupy every habitat around us, but most microbiomes of plants and animals are not present at birth and are acquired. Researchers analyzed where plants and animals acquire microbiomes and where microbes live outside of their hosts.

“Bioblitz” of wide variety of samples

The research team conducted a microbiome “bioblitz”—a near complete census of all environmental substrates and possible hosts to microbes within the watershed. They took more than 3,000 samples from the wet summit of Puʻu Kainapuaʻa, the low floodplain of Waimea Valley and even the clear waters of Waimea Bay. Researchers gathered samples from soil; stream and sea water; animals, including rats, crayfish, mosquitoes and sea urchins; and plants, including trees, ferns and algae; and much more. They extracted and sequenced more than 800 million microbial DNA “barcodes,” to determine which microbes were present where.

“Understanding sources of shared microbial diversity in ecosystems allows us to better understand the origins and assembly processes of symbiotic microbes and their role in preserving biodiversity and ecosystem services,” said Anthony Amend, lead author of the study and associate professor in (PBRC). “If we want to restore native plants and animals to an area, we may need to think about restoring the source environments for their microbiomes as well. Microbes are yet another way that organisms are connected to the environment.”

Key findings

When the team assessed where the largest diversity of microbes was found and where there were fewer species, the structure followed the food web—many types in soil and water, fewer in plants and fewer still in animals.

“Further, microbes that were found in animals tended to be a subset of the microbes associated with plants and the microbes on plants tended to be a subset of the microbes in soil, water, and sediment,” said Sean Swift, study co-author and doctoral student in the UH Mānoa . “It’s as if plants assemble their microbiome from the environment and then animals select their microbiome from that of plants. Microbiomes of organisms are generally subsets of those that are lower on the food chain.”

One obvious means of assembling a microbiome is to acquire microbes from a related host—as a human mother shares her microbiome with an infant, for example.

“However, this model is insufficient to sustain microbiomes across a dynamic landscape,” said Nicole Hynson, associate professor in PBRC at SOEST. “Many plants and animals are sparse, seasonal or ephemeral, requiring that their symbiotic microbes be capable of residing at times in alternate nearby hosts or environments. We found that soil, sediment and water serve as reservoirs for microbial diversity—providing environmental waiting rooms for microbes to colonize hosts when they are available.”

Another key finding is that the local distribution of a microbial species predicts its global distribution.

“Microbes that occur in only one or two organisms or environments in Waimea Valley are unlikely to be widespread globally,” said Craig Nelson, co-author and associate research professor in the Daniel K. Inouye and . “Some microbes were widespread in Waimea and are presumably adaptable to all sorts of hosts and habitats. Our analyses demonstrated that those generalist microbes were also most widely recovered from diverse habitats across the globe.”

The recent work shines light on the diversity and distribution of microbiomes at a landscape scale, an approach made possible by the unique structure and habitat diversity of Hawaiian watersheds.

The UH Mānoa research team included experts from SOEST, , and .

UH Mānoa research team members:

• Anthony S. Amend—PBRC in SOEST and botany in School of Life Sciences
• Sean O. I. Swift—Marine Biology Graduate Program
• John L. Darcy—botany
• Mahdi Belcaid—�鶹��ý Institute of Marine Biology and Department of Information and Computer Sciences
• Craig E. Nelson—Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education and �鶹��ý Sea Grant
• Nicolas Cetraro—PBRC
• Kiana Frank—PBRC
• Kacie Kajihara—PBRC
• Terrance G. McDermot—PBRC
• Margaret McFall-Ngai—PBRC
• Matthew Medeiros—PBRC
• Camilo Mora—College of Social Sciences
• Kirsten K. Nakayama—PBRC
• Nhu H. Nguyen—College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources
• Randi L. Rollins—zoology in School of Life Sciences
• Peter Sadowski—Department of Information and Computer Sciences
• Wesley Sparagon—Marine Biology Graduate Program
• Melisandre A. Tefit—PBRC
• Joanne Y. Yew—PBRC
• Danyel Yogi—PBRC
• Nicole A. Hynson—PBRC

A summer research program provided 11 Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (NHPI) college students from across the Pacific a valuable opportunity to develop their scientific research skills while tackling challenges facing Pacific Island communities. The 10-week program, hosted by the University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa, culminated with student presentations and a celebration at Ulupō Heiau State Historic Site on August 5.

The students performed cutting-edge research in environmental biology within the watershed of Kailua in Windward Oʻahu. Student projects focused on various topics including systems biology research to solve issues identified by the Kailua community, fishery science, sustainable agriculture systems, ecological restoration, invasive species science and management, and disease ecology. The place-based focus promoted science learning by linking it with Indigenous Pacific knowledge, fostering an opportunity for effective community engagement and encouraging collaboration among interns.

“As Indigenous researchers, our relationships to place, people and our ancestors are all intricately woven into our practice, understanding and interpretation of science,” said Kiana Frank, program co-lead and assistant professor in the (PBRC) in the . “Our program is built on the foundation of , infused with the intense intellectual rigor of learning ma ka hana ka ʻike (gaining knowledge by doing) huli ka lima i lalo (with our hands turned down) in both service and research to promote skills of , science and ʻ�徱�Բ�.”

Student participants went through a rigorous application process. The accepted students had all of their expenses covered through a grant by the National Science Foundation, including travel costs, room and board, meals, transportation and other project expenses.

“I found it to exceed my expectations being a program of not just purely science-based, but implementing culture to our learnings,” said Carlene Blailes, a program participant, current student at and a native of Guam. “Everyone in the program is especially friendly, and it was easy to build connections with one another and for me to come out of my shell. It truly is an outstanding program which pushes us to step out of our comfort zone, to get close to nature and understand the science behind it all.”

Christine Tominiko, a program participant, current student at and a native of American Samoa, added, “I’ve learned that science is a big contributor to the environment and we’ve done a lot of research this summer in order to better the environment around us.”

Training the next generation of NHPI scientists

NHPI are severely underrepresented in STEM majors and careers, greatly reducing the capacity to respond to challenges associated with global change. UH Mānoa experts said this is alarming since the small islands of the Pacific are expected to face disproportionate consequences of this global change, including sea level rise, coral reef loss, native species extinction, and increases in the frequency and intensity of storms.

“Access to contemporary technology that produces science is limited, but we’re dealing with a long lineage of excellent scientists, so much untapped potential,” said Matthew Medeiros, program co-lead and associate professor in PBRC. “A major goal of our program is to build good Pacific Island scientists.”

Medeiros added, “Knowledge has to return to the communities that need it. Knowledge has to return to the places that will benefit from it. Knowledge has to return to the people who helped create it with the scientists.”

Partnering with Kauluakalana

The program partnered with , a non-profit community-based organization committed to natural resource restoration in Kailua, following culturally-informed protocols and integrating Hawaiian ways of knowing. Students worked with their from several UH Mānoa colleges and departments (PBRC, , , , ), and Bishop Museum to perform research that helped to inform the objectives of Kauluakalana.

“It’s so meaningful to see them grow as young scientists, but see their projects develop and go deeper down into the microbes of the projects that they’re doing on ʻ�徱�Բ� to help revive this area,” said Kaleo Wong, Kauluakalana executive director.

—By Marc Arakaki

World-renowned microbiome research at the University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa received a major boost by the .

The five-year, $2,499,432 grant will support new research led by Professor Anthony Amend and his team to study how microbiomes influence food chains, which may lead to the creation of more efficient food webs that can potentially increase yield in agriculture, aquaculture and biofuels systems. This is the latest project in a storied history of groundbreaking microbiome research at UH Mānoa, spearheaded by Margaret McFall-Ngai, who joined the Carnegie Institution for Sciences in January 2022.

Food chains are inherently inefficient with major and predictable losses of energy due to waste and respiration. Research on food webs has mainly focused on the interactions among plants and animals. However, microbes (microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi) living in and on larger organisms play important roles in their health, rates of reproduction and ability to digest food.

The UH Mānoa project will examine how symbiotic microbes contribute to the efficiency of food webs, and how food webs determine the composition of symbiotic microbes. Results may indicate methods to manipulate the composition of microbes to create more efficient food webs that can potentially guide restoration of degraded habitats, capture carbon, and increase yield in agriculture, aquaculture and biofuels systems.

“Every time an animal eats a plant or another animal, about 90% of the energy of that food item escapes in the form of heat, while only the remaining 10% is transferred as biomass,” said Amend, who is the project’s principal investigator. “This inefficiency is one of the most steadfast rules of life, and is the reason there are comparatively few predators like sharks and lions in nature, but lots of plants and plant-eaters. We now know that symbiotic microbes living inside plants and animals can profoundly affect their ability to digest different types of food. If we can manipulate those microbes to change the efficiency with which food is converted to biomass—even by a small percentage—it could have tremendous impacts on our ability to manage complicated biological systems on which we rely, like watersheds and food systems.”

Amend added, “There has been a lot of great work on how microbiomes impact a single animal or plant, so we decided to scale that up to an entire ecosystem. It’s wild to think that the smallest living things can have the biggest impacts.”

Also on the research team are (PBRC) Assistant Professor Matthew Medeiros, PBRC Associate Professor Nicole Hynson and Assistant Professor Peter Sadowski.

Advancing microbiome research in Waimea Valley

This project builds on previous research conducted in Waimea Valley that indicated the surprising extent to which symbiotic microbes were shared amongst plants, animals, soils and sediments. This high degree of overlap among microbiomes across an entire watershed indicated that even unrelated organisms were reliant on each other as sources of critical microbial diversity. A commentary on the research was and Amend presented the findings at an Ecological Society of America meeting in August 2019.

Focus of research

Leveraging a model Hawaiian watershed system, this project aims to understand how host-associated microbiomes govern food chain efficiency and how, in turn, position within a food web affects the microbiome. Two experimental systems will be used to explore these predictions. The first is a simple food web that forms in the small pond of bromeliad plants, and the second consists of a lab-based mosquito microcosm. By analyzing the microbial genomic data, the researchers will decipher which specific microbial genes and proteins influence food web efficiency and function by altering digestive capacity of hosts.

The project will help train postdoctoral researchers, and graduate and undergraduate students in microbiome science through research in and out of the classroom. In addition, researchers will conduct workforce development and outreach to under-represented groups including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.

This work is an example of UH Mānoa’s goals of (PDF) and (PDF), two of four goals identified in the (PDF), updated in December 2020.

—By Marc Arakaki

The University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa’s pioneering microbiome researcher Margaret McFall-Ngai has been named the inaugural director of a newly created research division of the Carnegie Institution for Sciences that will focus on life and environmental sciences.

McFall-Ngai, a Guggenheim Fellow and member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Microbiology, joined Carnegie in January 2022.

“Margaret McFall-Ngai helped develop pioneering cross-disciplinary research here at the University of �鶹��ý on the interaction between humans and the environmental microbiome. She’s broken new ground with her own research on Hawaiian bobtail squid at the Kewalo Marine Lab, which has influenced many students and scientists here at UH and beyond,” said UH President David Lassner. “But more importantly, in her years here with us, Margaret has helped us all think differently about life sciences and she has led the cultivation of our next generation of creative and collaborative researchers and students, who are helping us understand and care for our ʻāina and therefore our people.”

“This is an inflection point in the field of biology,” McFall-Ngai said. “We found the microbial world is foundational to the field of biology. It’s the biggest change in our view of the biosphere since Darwin.”

McFall-Ngai has applied for an emeritus faculty position and a non-compensated appointment, which would allow her to continue to write grants with researchers at UH Mānoa, which she says is now viewed as a major microbiome research center.

Microbiome mecca

In 1996, McFall-Ngai became the first tenured woman at the Kewalo Marine Laboratory. She left in 2004 for the University of Wisconsin at Madison and held a number of prestigious appointments before returning to UH in 2015 to serve as director of the (PBRC). Much of her research focuses on the relationship between the Hawaiian bobtail squid and the luminescent bacterium Vibrio fischeri. Using this model, she and other researchers are studying how the microbiome shapes various aspects of animal and plant life, including development and longevity.

In 2017, a group of cross-disciplinary researchers, including McFall-Ngai were one of the winners of the UH Mānoa provost’s inaugural Strategic Investment Competition. That initial $700,000 investment helped to create the (��-��Ā������). Since that initial investment, ��-��Ā������ has generated more than $14 million in extramural funding to support research and curriculum development. Through it all, McFall-Ngai has served as one of the key advisors to the group.

“They are people who study the microbial world—what we call the Earthʻs microbiomes. And those microbiomes are at the basis of health of absolutely everything,” she said. “From the oceans to the soils to the forests—every animal is impacted by interacting with the microbial world and every plant.”

In 2018, the awarded $1 million to a cross-disciplinary group of researchers headed by McFall-Ngai for a groundbreaking UH project that established the Waimea watershed on the north shore of Oʻahu, �鶹��ý as a model microbiome mesocosm⏼that is, a study site small enough to thoroughly investigate but large enough to reveal the complexities of natural systems. It was the first study of an entire watershed, from ridge to reef, to map its microbial communities and their ecosystem processes.

That same year, McFall-Ngai, was selected to receive a MERIT award of more than $5 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). MERIT or Method to Extend Research In Time awards have been offered since 1986 to “distinctly superior” investigators who have demonstrated high levels of competence and productivity in previous research efforts and “who are highly likely to continue to perform in an outstanding manner.”

McFall-Ngai and Researcher Ned Ruby served as principal investigators for a $10.4-million grant awarded in 2019 to a cross-disciplinary group of junior researchers from the NIH (COBRE) to support the first center focusing on the interface between environmental microbiomes and human health.

Many of the researchers who are part of the COBRE grant are housed in UH Mānoa’s new Life Sciences Building. The aim of the three “cores”—microscopy, insectary and molecular biology/biochemistry—are to develop the tools to understand the interface between human and environmental health, and the microbial forces at work.

“The COBRE is a gift to UH. It is the opportunity to create an active center for the study of the dynamic relationship between Earth’s microbiomes and human health,” McFall-Ngai said. “This gift will not only benefit researchers at UH, but the center has every opportunity for being a mecca for researchers from across the nation and around the world.”

UH’s microbiome future

With McFall-Ngai’s and Ruby’s departures, other UH scientists will assume principal investigator duties for the COBRE grant.

“What I was hoping for with the COBRE core is that we might become something like a Smithsonian tropical research institute, but in the central Pacific for people who want to study the interface between the microbial world and other aspects of the environment,” she said.

Lassner concluded, “We will forever be grateful to Margaret for leading �鶹��ý to the vanguard of environmental microbiome research and we look forward to our future collaborations as she assumes her new post at the Carnegie Institute for Science.”

—By Kelli Abe Trifonovitch

• Related UH News stories:
  • Human, environmental health research develops via �鶹��ý landscape, December 11, 2020
  • $10.4M grant to UH researchers links environmental microbiomes to human health, January 21, 2019
  • Prestigious $5M award for UH microbial researcher, July 31, 2018
  • Trailblazing microbiome research receives $1M W.M. Keck Foundation grant, September 17, 2018
  • Native squid and its bacterium may help human and environmental health, February 5, 2017

More than 120 baby Hawaiian bobtail squid born from a mother squid collected at Maunalua Bay were sent to the International Space Station in June to help scientists understand how astronauts’ health is affected during long space missions. The squid were launched into space as part of ��������’s SpaceX 22nd resupply mission and are scheduled to return in July.

Jamie Foster, a University of �鶹��ý alumna who completed her doctorate in 2000 under the guidance of UH Professor Margaret McFall-Ngai, a professor at the University of Florida, and principal investigator for a NASA research program (UMAMI), will be investigating how squids are affected by spaceflight.

“The goal of the UMAMI project is to better understand the effects of microgravity, or spaceflight, on the beneficial interactions between animals and microbes,” said Foster. “Beneficial interactions with microbes are critical for animal health. Studying the bobtail squid helps us understand fundamental ways bacteria initiate relationships with their animal hosts.”

Hawaiian bobtail squids have one host and one microbial species, in comparison to humans, which have one host and more than 1,000 microbial species. When baby squid are born, they pick out their symbiont (the bacteria they partner with), and that partner has to drive the development of the tissues it associates with and has to stay in balance to keep animals healthy. This process is the same in humans.

Foster is trying to determine how the squid’s symbiont-induced development is perturbed in space, to help address health problems that astronauts face during long space missions, such as compromised immune systems and the potential for microbes to become more pathogenic.

“We know that when astronauts go to space, it is not uncommon at all for them to have immune problems, and changes to their microbiota,” said McFall-Ngai, who has been studying squid since 1989. “You have microbes that keep you healthy on your skin and in your digestive system, and there is something about microgravity that disturbs that balance. In sending these squid into space, Jamie hopes to find basic evolutionarily conserved principles that can be applied to the human microbiome.”

Kewalo Marine Lab hub for squid research

McFall-Ngai learned of the Hawaiian bobtail squid as a graduate student, and has spent her professional career of more than 30 years studying the species.

“This particular little squid lends itself to studying symbiosis everywhere from ecology and evolutionary biology all the way up to molecular mechanisms,” said McFall-Ngai. “You can do just about any level of biology with this animal.”

Today, there are many labs across the U.S. and Europe that study squid-vibrio symbiosis, all of which have originated out of UH.

“The community we have is very tightly woven,” added McFall-Ngai. “Jamie got her degree at the University of �鶹��ý, she comes here often, and she works with the people here and other academics who have come through UH. �鶹��ý is like the nexus, the center, of the studies.”

“I first thought of the idea for UMAMI while a graduate student at UH,” added Foster. “My work with Dr. Margaret McFall-Ngai showed me the importance of beneficial microbes in animal health, but there were no comparable studies being done in the field of space biology. I thought the Hawaiian bobtail squid would be a perfect model organism for this type of spaceflight research. It took 10 years before the first squid went to space in 2011 and another 10 years for the UMAMI mission, but each mission builds on the previous research, and I hope there will be more opportunities for this UMAMI mission to continue.”

This research is an example of UH Mānoa’s goal of (PDF), one of four goals identified in the (PDF), updated in December 2020.