Microbes and Social Equity speaker series 2023
This series explores the way that microbes connect public policy, social disparities, and human health, as well as the ongoing research, education, policy, and innovation in this field.
I would like to thank the UMaine Institute of Medicine and the UMaine
Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Committee for their support for this series, and acknowledge the work of our MSE members helping to organize this: Emily Wissel, Kat Daiy, Kieran O’Doherty, Hannah Holland-Moritz, Mallory Choudoir, and Mustafa Saifuddin. I would also like to recognize that the University of Maine is located on Marsh Island in the homeland of the Penobscot Nation.
Our
presentation today is “Microbiome Research with the Yanomami”,
David Good
David Good is a PhD
student in microbiology at the University of Guelph, Ontario. His general
research goal is characterizing the structural and functional microbial
diversity of his Yanomami family, the Irokae-teri, located in the Amazon
rainforest of Venezuela. They are of great interest in the microbiome field
since the Irokae-teri live fully immersed in the rainforest environment and
subsist by an active lifestyle of hunting-gathering and small-scale gardening.
Furthermore, their relative isolation deep in the Amazon limits their exposure
to microbiome stressors such as antibiotics, highly refined and processed
foods, industrial toxins and pollutants, food preservatives, etc. David will
discuss this unique and rare opportunity to advance our understanding of the
human microbiome of a community largely unperturbed by westernization, while
building global awareness on the importance of protecting these few remaining
isolated indigenous societies. However, such research brings numerous
challenges surrounding bioethics. David hopes to build dialogue around going
beyond simple compliance in microbiome research, and how the Yanomami have the
right to self-determination and harness their bioeconomic potential to protect
their home.