Phytobiomes Alliance Newsletter – May 2025
In this issue, we are sharing updates from Alliance projects, news from our working groups, and upcoming events and webinars.
Catch up on the latest and mark your calendar!
To receive the Alliance newsletter in your inbox, register to the mailing list.
Alliance Projects News
- The NSF-funded USCCN project has a full schedule of events and updates to share, including webinars, conference participation, award nominations, and new blog content:
-
Upcoming Webinar – 4 June 2025, 11:00 AM EDT
Victoria Knight-Connoni (ATCC®) will highlight the diversity of the ATCC collection, tools for authentication, and its value as a resource for current and future scientists. Register here -
ASM Microbe 2025 – 19-23 June 2025
Visit the USCCN booth and poster at ASM Microbe 2025 in Los Angeles, CA, USA. -
Porter Award Nominations
Do you know a scientist doing outstanding work in support of microbial collections used by the scientific community? Nominate them by 11 July 2025. -
MICROBE Project Annual Meeting
USCCN project manager Dusti Gallagher participated in the second annual consortium meeting in Wöltingerode, Germany. Read the report. -
Blog Post: Spotlight on DSMZ
Learn about one of the world’s most advanced microbial culture collections: the Leibniz Institute DSMZ – the German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH. Read the blog.
-
- The EU-funded project Microbes-4-Climate (M4C) has launched its first Transnational Access (TNA) Open Call.
This initiative offers fully funded access to cutting-edge research infrastructures across Europe, aiming to boost collaboration and innovation in fields such as biotechnology, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and environmental sciences. Researchers from both academia and industry are encouraged to apply for access to microbial resources, advanced analytical tools, and expert support. Learn more and apply here, and explore the full catalogue of services here.
Deadline for applications: 30 June 2025
For information about other Alliance projects, go to https://phytobiomesalliance.org/projects/
News from the Alliance Working Groups
The Alliance Working Groups have been actively engaged in recent months and are planning a range of activities for the months ahead.
Membership in Alliance working groups is open to Alliance sponsors, affiliates, and academic leaders of Alliance supported or led scientific projects.
- Animal Microbiomes:
- The group organized a webinar in April “Beyond the host genome: host genetics and gut microbiome determinism in livestock“
- Stay tuned for details about the next webinar, scheduled for 12 November, which will focus on the rumen microbiome, methane emissions, and mitigation strategies.
- The group will present a poster at the 76th annual meeting of the European Association for Animal Production (Innsbruck, Austria, 25-29 August) and submitted an abstract for presentaiton at ISAG 2025 Conference, happening on 20-25 July in the Republic of Korea.
- Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA): The group is working on a perspective article outlining the current state of phytobiomes knowledge within CEA.
- Plant Microbiomes:
- Save the date: 8 October 2025 for a webinar comparing microbiome studies in the field and greenhouses. More information will be shared shortly.
- Read the perspective article published in Phytopathology: From Microbes to Microbiomes: Applications for Plant Health and Sustainable Agriculture.
- Regulatory: The group is working to identify research needs and technology gaps that would facilitate more rapid regulatory review of microbes.
- Soil Health: The group is planning to organize a series of three webinars, starting later this year. Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.
Upcoming Alliance Webinars
- “100 Years of Collecting Biological Materials: The Diversity of the ATCC® Collection”
4 June 2025 – 11:00 AM EDT
Presented by Victoria Knight-Connoni Head of Content and Product Development, ATCC, USA
This event is organized in collaboration with the U.S. Culture Collection Network. - “Designing biosensors to inform ecosystem engineering”
10 September 2025 – 11:00 AM EDT
Presented by Ilenne Del Valle, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA
Interested in presenting a webinar for the phytobiomes community? Contact Ying Sun at sun@eversoleassociates.com
Missed a webinar? Rewatch them on the Alliance YouTube channel.
Media Partnerships with Event Organizers
9th Microbiome AgBioTech Summit 2025
25-27 August 2025 | Raleigh, NC, USA
Register here with the code PHYTOBIO10 to get 10% off
The 9th Microbiome AgBioTech Summit (August 25-27 | Raleigh, NC) will bring together 90+ AgBioTech leaders working across R&D, regulations, and commercialization to advance microbial biologicals for agriculture.
What’s new for 2025? This year’s program delivers an end-to-end focus with experts from Syngenta, Bayer Crop Science, Novonesis, and more. Gain actionable insights on fermentation bottlenecks, formulation shelf-life stability, and product performance validation to boost on-farm adoption — critical for emerging and mid-sized companies.
Explore the brand-new Event Guide.
With regulations more challenging than ever, you can enjoy sessions that dive into global and inter-state variations on product definitions, testing requirements, and how you can expand your product reach into new markets. These discussions are led by senior voices from BASF, Intrinsyx Bio, and Plant Health Care, ensuring practical takeaways for your regulatory strategy. View the full speaker faculty.
You’ll connect with leading researchers, startup innovators, distribution experts, as well as hear firsthand from growers on what builds trust and drives adoption.
If you want to overcome common hurdles and accelerate your path from discovery to commercialization, this is your opportunity to move faster, smarter, and with the right partners at your side.
Find out more.
Upcoming phytobiome-related events
- 15-19 June – Rhizosphere 6, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
- 19-23 June – ASM Microbe, Los Angeles, CA, United States
- 13-17 July – IS-MPMI Congress, Cologne, Germany
- 20-25 July – 40th International Society for Animal Genetics Conference (ISAG 2025), Daejeon, Republic of Korea
- 2-5 August – Plant Health 2025, Honolulu, HI, United States
- 25-27 August – 9th Microbiome AgBioTech Summit, Raleigh, NC, United States
- 25-29 August – 76th annual meeting of the European Association for Animal Production (EAAP2025), Innsbruck, Austria
- 3-7 November – 6th Plant Microbiome Symposium, Antequera, Spain
For updates, check the event calendar on the website. If you are aware of an event on phytobiome-related topics and if that event is not listed on the website, please let us know.
Our Sponsors
The Phytobiomes Alliance is sponsored by Syngenta, Eversole Associates, INRAE, United Soybean Board, Valent BioSciences, Mosaic Biosciences, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NewLeaf Symbiotics, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, Pivot Bio, Purdue University College of Agriculture, the Waterloo Centre for Microbial Research, and Earth Microbial.
To learn more about the Alliance, visit phytobiomesalliance.org and follow us on X and on LinkedIn.