Captain’s Log
Captain’s Log, stardate…
2025.06.02: The Venkatesh Lab welcomed Sanjeev Sivaraman to the lab today. Sanjeev is a high school student at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley, and is joining us for a month-long internship.
2025.05.31: I joined UW’s Molecular Engineering & Sciences (MolES) Institute as a faculty member.
2025.05.19: I am thrilled today to welcome back Yewon Kang, our undergraduate intern from Summer 2024, for a second cameo in the lab. I recall that Yewon was very talented at the bench and was a wonderful lab citizen. A privilege to be her mentor!
2025.05.16: Anne, our undergraduate student, presented her latest findings at the 2025 UW Undergraduate Research Symposium. I felt proud of Anne— she did a marvelous job! I also thought that Yoonjung deserves a lot of praise for her mentoring.
2025.04.29: I travelled to the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine (Hanover, NH) to give an invited seminar at the 2025 DartCF symposium.
It was a great pleasure to spend time with leaders in the CF field and many trainees! Dartmouth really is a wonderful community of scholars.
2025.04.22: I visited Dr. June Round’s laboratory at the University of Utah to present unpublished findings and to discuss next steps in a burgeoning collaboration. A hugely rewarding experience interacting with members of the Round Lab, especially Darci Ott (PhD candidate) and June, our gracious host.
2025.04.21: Nate delivered an invited seminar at the 3rd Annual Utah Neuroimmunology Trainee (UNIT) Symposium, presenting both his doctoral work and unpublished research from the Venkatesh Lab.
Almost needless to say, Nate did a great job. He is such an excellent ambassador for the lab!
2025.04.17: I led a very enjoyable discussion with the Pathobiology PhD students in their Critical Thinking class.
2025.03.01: The Venkatesh Lab was awarded a competitive NIDDK P30 pilot award for developing microbiota-directed nutritional interventions for rectifying GI dysfunction in people with cystic fibrosis.
I feel very grateful to receive this grant and hope that our proposed studies impact people with cystic fibrosis.
2025.02.20: Our co-authored review with the Meeske Lab on gut phages and their interactions with bacterial and mammalian hosts was accepted for publication by the Journal of Bacteriology.
First author Marshall Godsil (Meeske Lab) and Nate did a phenomenal job! I hope that this is the first in a long line of papers co-authored by our two labs.
2025.02.10: I travelled to Amsterdam to give an invited seminar at the 2025 Mind, Mood & Microbes meeting.
It was a wonderful pleasure to interact with leaders in the gut-brain field and many trainees!
2025.01.06: I enjoyed serving on the Admissions Committee of the UW Microbiology PhD Program and witnessing the process from the other side. And my goodness, aren’t the applicants of a frighteningly high caliber?!!
2024.12.05: Reunited with Dr. Michael Barratt, one of my mentors at WashU. The family and I had dinner with Mike and then the two of us retired to his hotel lounge for a longer conversation. Always wonderful to chat with Mike, and I left with renewed optimism and hope. He really is incredible at motivating people in his typically gentle way, and one of the smartest people that I know.
2024.11.10: I delivered unpublished work at an invited seminar at the American Society of Microbiology Northwest Branch Meeting.
I felt especially grateful to the co-organizers, Drs. Patrick Mitchell and Alex Meeske, for their generous invitation.
2024.11.07: Yoonjung presented her unpublished research at BacFLIPS, a UW-wide bacteriology seminar series.
Yoonjung did a fine job today and I felt very proud of her. The audience engagement was impressive too!
2024.10.25: My co-first authored paper in Science was published today.
In my 2019 work, I co-led the development of a new class of nutritional interventions, microbiota-directed complementary foods (MDCFs), with Drs. Jeanette Gehrig and Hao-Wei Chang.
Today, my co-first author Dr. Jiye Cheng and I reported the identification of gut microbial enzymes that impact satiety-related signaling pathways in undernourished children treated with MDCFs.
I was touched by UW mim_c’s interesting and informative news story. Deeply grateful to mim_c for their generous support since I started my lab and to Monica Tschang (UW Neuroscience) for taking the time to write such a thoughtful article.
And that WashU press release was very cool!
2024.10.24: I led a journal paper discussion in PABIO581 (Current Literature in Pathobiology), taken by all graduate students in the first three years of the Pathobiology PhD Program. It was a pleasure to interact with the students and to hang out with Dr. Jenny Lund (Director, UW Pathobiology PhD Program)!
2024.10.18: I presented my work at the 2024 ISB Virtual Microbiome Series. Theme of the meeting was “A gut feeling: Microbes and their impacts on our minds”.
I was excited to learn that the entire symposium is accessible to all. And very grateful to Crystal Perez, PhD student in the Gibbons Lab, for a fabulous and engaging Q&A discussion.
2024.10.16: I gave a lecture and led a journal paper discussion in PABIO551 (Biochemistry and Genetics of Pathogens and their Hosts), a first-year graduate course in the UW Pathobiology PhD Program.
2024.10.01: The Venkatesh Lab welcomed three UW undergraduate students— Anne Tinker (majoring in Biochemistry), Alis Mallah (Microbiology), and Nishitha Pinninty (Computer Science) to our group.
I am just thrilled to be serving as their undergrad mentor.
2024.09.08: I attended the UW Micro Retreat and enjoyed the science and company of the faculty and students. A pleasure to be part of this community!
2024.08.01: Yewon and Naomi had their last day in the Venkatesh Lab before heading back to their respective colleges in NY and CA.
They did a great job presenting their posters at the REU Social. I will miss their vim and verve!
2024.07.01: I started an appointment as Affiliate Assistant Professor in UWSoM’s Department of Microbiology.
So excited for all the science that lies ahead and to interact with so many wonderful colleagues!
2024.06.16: I travelled to Rio de Janeiro to give an invited seminar at the “Nutrition, Microbiome Health: Latest Findings and Future Research” meeting hosted by the Nestlé Nutrition Institute. My talk focused on the development of microbiota-targeted nutritional interventions to combat childhood malnutrition (see the abstract here) , work that was published as a co-first-authored paper in Science in 2019.
A remarkable experience! First time South of the Equator for me!
2024.05.28: The Venkatesh Lab welcomed Yewon Kang (Vassar College, NY) and Naomi Gutierrez (Cerrito College, CA) to our lab today. Excited to host my first REU interns!
2024.03.09: Nate was interviewed by the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) for his doctoral research that was conducted at University College Cork, Ireland. His work has revealed a role for the gut virome in ameliorating anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in mouse models.
I enjoyed listening to the podcast and reading his exciting work in Nature Microbiology.
2024.02.29: I joined the steering committee of the Next-Gen Bio Learning Network and led a discussion with education leaders at the K-12 level and in community colleges entitled “Principles of Science for Principals”.
2024.02.21: I participated in the Rowan University Biomedical Engineering Annual Advisory Board Meeting as a board member. Happy to witness Rowan BME’s successes!
2024.02.01: Dr. Yoonjung Lee began her first day as a Research Scientist in the Venkatesh Lab today, and so did Nate.
I am over the moon that the two of them are here and look forward to lots of exciting science!
2024.01.23: I presented my research at the UW Microbiology Seminar Series. As part of my application for an Affiliate Assistant Professor position, I met with members of the Micro Faculty over two days and enjoyed brainstorming science with them.
2024.01.07: I picked up Dr. Nate Ritz and his partner from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Our first meeting in person after many Zoom conversations that led to Nate being hired sight unseen.
Thrilled that Nate is joining my lab as a postdoctoral research associate.
2023.12.04: Omari Weems began his first day as a Research Associate II.
A watershed event for the Venkatesh Lab, the day that n=1 became n=2.
2023.11.15: I was invited by Dr. Joseph Mougous (HHMI, UW Microbiology) to present my research on gut microbial enzymes at the mim_c Fall Microsymposium.
The UW mim_c (Microbial Interactions & Microbiome Center), co-founded by Dr. Mougous (its Director) and Dr. Kyle Asfahl (Managing Director), aims to catalyze microbiome research across the PNW.
2023.11.03: My wife and I took a research scientist candidate to lunch— the first of many such delightful recruiting visits given that my “lab” was comprised of exactly one person: myself.
2023.10.23: The ISB Faculty Lectures resumed after COVID, and I delivered the inaugural post-pandemic edition titled “Gut Microbial Metabolism of Pharmacologically Active N-Acylethanolamines”. All neighboring institutions in the PNW were invited to my in-person seminar.
2023.09.20: I gave a chalk talk-styled seminar about my future research program to ISB’s Board of Directors at a swanky gala.
2023.09.14: I am learning so much from the newest edition of Principles of Virology (Flint et al.). I’m especially delighted that my Rockefeller mentor, Dr. Theodora Hatziioannou, is a new addition to the authors. Theodora has always been an inspiration and remains one of my role models in science.
2023.09.06: A swift return to reality! I was hit by a tidal wave of regulatory paperwork and administrative requirements.
2023.09.05: Launch Day for the Venkatesh Lab at ISB. An adventure begins!