Invited Faculty - Integration Hub
Dr. Sue Ishaq, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at the University of Maine, where her lab focuses on the importance of the spatial location of microbiota in a host and how this affects host-microbe interactions, and environmental contexts as determinants of the host microbiota. Her ongoing research activities investigate the microbiome in several animal hosts with implications for a wide variety of research applications and to health, agriculture, and ecological management sectors in Maine and beyond.
Sue founded the Microbes and Social Equity (MSE) working group in 2020, an international collaboration to explore the research, education, and policy regarding the way microbes connect individuals, societies, and ecosystems. MSE members include researchers from more than 90 institutions and 22 countries at different levels of career trajectory working in a variety of research fields touching on microbiology, health, public policy, and more.
Sue received her Doctorate in Animal, Nutrition and Food Science from the University of Vermont Department of Animal Science. Her graduate study focused on the rumen microbiology of the moose, including identification using high throughput sequencing and DNA analysis, isolation of bacteria using anaerobic culturing techniques, and investigation/application of economically and environmentally important species. She studied bioinformatic analysis of soil, water, and host-associated microbes in a post-doctoral research position in the Yeoman Lab in the Department of Animal and Range Sciences of Montana State University, as well as agricultural soil bacterial communities during a one-year position in the Menalled Lab at Montana State University in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences. Prior to her position at the University of Maine, she was a Research Assistant Professor of Microbial Ecology in the Biology and the Built Environment Center at the University of Oregon for two years working to understand how building design influences the indoor microbiome and human health.
