Uploaded November 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
I teach a freshman writing course at the University of Puget Sound that uses symbioses and parasitism as a focal point. Students learn about various associations between organisms, positive and negative, and develop skills in writing, evaluating scientific and popular literature, and creating presentations. As part of this course, several scientists have offered to "tele-visit" my classroom to discuss student questions.
Dr. Bordenstein of Vanderbilt University is our second "visitor" for this Fall 2015 course. His laboratory website is http://bordensteinlab.vanderbilt.edu/.
Dr. Bordenstein will be chatting with my students about his current championing of the "Hologenome/Holobiome" concept. My students read this summary of a very recent perspective written by Dr. Bordenstein and Dr. Kevin Theis, and that article itself. The title of that article says it all: "Host Biology in Light of the Microbiome: Ten Principles of Holobionts and Hologenomes."
The summary is here: http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2015/08/the-pronoun-i-is-becoming-obsolete/
The paper is here: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002226
I sometimes call Dr. Bordenstein the High Priest of the Hologenome. We all look forward to his sermon! I hope that everyone enjoys this wonderful treat---examining a new way of looking at the living world, from someone who has thought very deeply about it.
I teach a freshman writing course at the University of Puget Sound that uses symbioses and parasitism as a focal point. Students learn about various associations between organisms, positive and negative, and develop skills in writing, evaluating scientific and popular literature, and creating presentations. As part of this course, several scientists have offered to "tele-visit" my classroom to discuss student questions.
Dr. Bordenstein of Vanderbilt University is our second "visitor" for this Fall 2015 course. His laboratory website is http://bordensteinlab.vanderbilt.edu/.
Dr. Bordenstein will be chatting with my students about his current championing of the "Hologenome/Holobiome" concept. My students read this summary of a very recent perspective written by Dr. Bordenstein and Dr. Kevin Theis, and that article itself. The title of that article says it all: "Host Biology in Light of the Microbiome: Ten Principles of Holobionts and Hologenomes."
The summary is here: http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2015/08/the-pronoun-i-is-becoming-obsolete/
The paper is here: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002226
I sometimes call Dr. Bordenstein the High Priest of the Hologenome. We all look forward to his sermon! I hope that everyone enjoys this wonderful treat---examining a new way of looking at the living world, from someone who has thought very deeply about it.
