Fermentation Speaker Series

We spoke with Dr. Aviaja Hauptmann, an Associate Professor in the Institute of Health & Nature and Head of the Department of SILA (Scientific and Indigenous Teachings on Life in the Arctic). Her work explores the interaction between microbiology, diet, and the environment, focusing on Inuit food microbiomes and Indigenous food sovereignty. She is examining gastrophagy as a way of connecting animal gut, food, and human gut microbiomes.Join our conversation on hybrid fermentation, probiotics, and the open questions in health and fermentation studies.

Dr. Chantle Swichkow, a postdoc in Leonid Kruglyak’s lab at UCLA, has been exploring the role of yeast in these symbiotic interactions. By applying her background in mouse genetics to yeast, she studies how yeast strain diversity impacts microbial community composition and the final organoleptic properties of wine, bread, and kombucha.Join our conversation on the history of Saccharomyces, strain diversity in fermented food production, blue Takis, and the power of Reddit.

The microbiome of fermented foods, like any microbiome, is a multi-species microbial community and can include a rich mixture of bacteria, fungi, and yeast all in the same fermented food. The presence of a specific microbe cannot always predict the final quality, safety, or flavor of a fermented food, but studying their interactions gives a richer understanding of these community dynamics. Ben Wolfe, an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Tufts University has been exploring these microbial ecologies. Using models such as cheese rinds, sterile baby cabbages, and kombucha, his lab investigates the origins of these fermentation community members, how they interact with each other, and how these communities can evolve and diversify over time.Join our conversation on microbial onramps, phage resistance, and purple cheese…

One of the most well recognized microbes in food fermentation is Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, used to produce most yogurts today. Originally named Bacillus bulgarian, the name plays homage to Bulgaria where it was first isolated in 1905. But before we isolated this microbe and cultured it to use as a starter, how was yogurt made?With the help of Sevgi’s family and insight from the rest of the community, Sevgi, Veronica and David traveled to Nova Mahala, Bulgaria to explored how rituals around yogurt making impacts the microbial community and final flavor of yogurt.

Dr. Maya Hey is a researcher at the Centre for the Social Study of Microbes, based in the University of Helsinki. She has been studying fermentation and health for the past 15 years and holds degrees in nutrition, food studies, and communications.

Dr. Evans is a Senior Researcher and Leader of the Sustainable Food Innovation Group at the Center for Biosustainability at the Technical University of Denmark. His multidisciplinary group uses culinary research & development to make flavorful, sustainable, often fermented foods, scientific methods to study their flavor, ecology and evolution, and social science and artistic practice to understand and experiment with how they might fit into food culture.In his talk, Dr. Evans shares some of his work on how the pursuit of new flavors through fermentation can lead to novel microbial ecologies and evolutionary histories, and how bringing together art, science, and cooking through fermentation can invite closer relationships to our bodies and to the planet.

In this first talk, David Zilber presents a framework through which to consider fermentation and health research.