Rich in nutrients, immune-boosting proteins and beneficial bacteria, breast milk has long been hailed as nature’s perfect food for babies. Now, a Rutgers University-led study suggests that breast milk is more than just nourishment. Breast milk also is a biological clock, sending time-sensitive signals to help guide a baby’s development. With breast milk, timing might […]
Biochemistry and Microbiology
Call For Urgent, Coordinated Global Action To Safeguard Microbial Heritage
A letter published today by co-author Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, the Henry Rutgers Professor of Microbiome and Health in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology in the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, in Nature Microbiology highlights how human activities are rapidly transforming global microbial ecosystems, with major consequences for health, agriculture, and the environment. Dominguez-Bellow […]
Be it Feast or Famine, Orangutans Adapt With Flexible Diets
Humans could learn a thing or two from orangutans when it comes to maintaining a balanced, protein-filled diet. Great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia, orangutans are marvels of adaptation to the vagaries of food supply in the wild, according to an international team of researchers led by a Rutgers University-New Brunswick […]
Rutgers Researchers Chart Next Steps for Developing Lateral Flow COVID-19-Type Tests to Monitor Coral Health
In a recent review in the journal BioEssays, Rutgers researchers described the next steps needed to produce affordable, field-portable diagnostic tests to deliver coral health monitoring tools to local communities. The latest collaborative effort brought together coral restoration practitioners, which included the Coral Restoration Foundation, academic researchers at Rutgers, small business owner, CapitalCorals Research & […]
A Global Microbiome Preservation Effort Enters Its Growth Phase
A global effort to create a “microbial Noah’s Ark” to preserve the world’s diverse collection of healthy microbes before they disappear is now entering an active growth phase. In a perspective article published in Nature Communications, a team of 25 scientists involved in the formation of the Microbiota Vault Initiative reported their successes and also laid out an ethical framework […]
From Uncertainty to Understanding: Gabrielle Alli’s Freshman Year Journey
Freshman year in college is a time of growth marked by both hardship and joy. For Gabrielle Alli, a freshman from a small magnet school in Freehold whose major is microbiology and food science, growth has meant building confidence through the friendship and mentorship that comes with finding community in the ocean of New Jersey’s […]
Three Years After Fleeing War-Torn Ukraine, Illia Kholiavin (SEBS’25) Honored Among Rutgers’ Highest Academic Achievers
Illia Kholiavin joined 234 of his peers inducted into the prestigious Matthew Leydt Society When Illia Kholiavin fled his war-torn Ukrainian hometown of Mariupol in 2022, he left behind the only life he’d ever known. “I didn’t leave my city for more than a week in my life,” said Kholiavin, who had to abandon medical […]
Gloria Dominguez-Bello Among Four Rutgers Researchers Named AAAS Fellows
Gloria Dominguez-Bello, the Henry Rutgers Professor of Microbiome and Health in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the most distinctive honors within the scientific community. The world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through […]
Study of Female Genital Tract Reveals Key Findings
Insights from an international team including a Rutgers researcher include identification of beneficial bacteria that thwart disease Seeking to understand what constitutes a healthy vaginal microbiome, a global research collaboration that includes a Rutgers-New Brunswick scientist has reported a series of findings, including identifying which bacteria thwart vaginal disease and determining that microbiomes vary significantly […]
From Ukraine to Rutgers, Illia Kholiavin (SEBS ’25) Perseveres with Biochemistry Degree
Illia Kholiavin is no ordinary SEBS senior. He’s no ordinary transfer student, either. He came to Rutgers from Ukraine in 2023 after his hometown, located in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border, was ravaged by war. Kholiavin was a med school student back home, but his major, like so much in his life, changed suddenly […]








