Very proud of this work on how the microbiome breaks down and consumes xanthan gum. Grateful to work with an awesome team of scientists and people. Excited to go after the next set of fascinating questions!

Very excited to see my team’s work on xanthan gum discussed in Chris van Tulleken’s new book “Ultra-processed People”! @DoctorChrisVT Friendly reminder to see the full paper at https://t.co/FYUlneZWL8 and follow some of my awesome team: @SabinaLLaRosa @ThePopeLab @EricCMartens1

I’m happy to share that I’ve started a new position as Scientist, Biomarker Discovery at Amgen! Thanks to everyone who helped me get here! Looking forward to trying to make a real world impact on improving people’s lives with science!

Friendly reminder to submit your abstracts for Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes for Glycan Conversions! Speakers and discussion leaders for the GRS will be chosen from submitted abstracts within the next month!

Aspiring science communicators should check out the Lasker Foundation Essay Contest @LaskerFDN! Even if your essay isn't chosen, you can share your essay with your networks to start important conversations. https://t.co/JpELuUlC9J

Applications OPEN for a great conference! Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes for Glycan Conversions https://t.co/qAAqR1TNfR Lots of opportunities for talks from grad students and postdocs! Don't forget to apply to the associated GRC as well!

Sometimes you lyophilize oligosaccharides and they turn out like deep sea hydrothermal vents! Happy Friday everyone!

If you ever wanted to say you’re a molecular ichthyologist, check out this PhD position with my great collaborators (although I’m pretty sure the fish will be normal size!)

Is Xanthan Gum Safe? An article on a new study that a lab at the University of Michigan asked me to write: https://t.co/Jy7idxS8bU #xanthangum #glutenfreebaking #glutenfree #glutenfreefood #glutenfreeingredients #celiac #celiacdisease #glutenintolerance #glutenintolerant

In a Nature Portfolio Microbiology Community post, @mattostrowski2 shares how consumption of xanthan gum —a common food additive in the human diet— is influencing human microbiomes and possibly human health. #BehindThePaper

Are processed foods unintentionally engineering our microbiomes? Happy to share a "Behind the Paper" post on how it's important to be open to new hypotheses and reviewer critiques to make your science stronger! https://t.co/RBIhOm94Nz #behindthepaper

For easy/free access to our story on how eating xanthan gum affects our microbiomes, here's a #SharedIt link to our paper:

For easy/free access to our story on how eating xanthan gum affects our microbiomes, here's a #SharedIt link to our paper:

Very excited to finally be sharing this work! Huge thanks to an awesome team of collaborators!

Thanks to NCSU College of Engineering for the fun highlight!

That moment when you realize your 'failed' experiment disproving your hypothesis can be reframed as a really interesting result that deserves investigation

Career musings, ways to study biology: Take it out of the living thing (e.g. biochemistry), break it (e.g. knockouts), study it in the living thing (e.g. omics methods, microscopy), build new biology (e.g. move parts from one organism to another).

1. Keep the end goal (helping real people) in mind. 2. Submitting your first IRB or human subject incentives request can be daunting and confusing, but there are lots of people to email or call that can help you navigate the process. Reach out to them! They're amazing!

For other trainees interested in applying their basic science to clinical or translational research, a few words of advice:

I sincerely hope that my work will contribute to preventing or treating some of the human suffering in this world.