Episode 21: The Future of Microbiome Studies - From Research to Practical Application

Dr. Tasha M. Santiago-Rodriguez is a Data Analyst/Project Manager at the Alkek Center for Metagenomics and Microbiome Research at the Baylor College of Medicine. Previously, she worked as a Senior Data Scientist at Diversigen in Houston, Texas a microbiome service company where she was part of the R&D team developing new methods to better interpret microbiome studies. She received a PhD from the University of Puerto Rico in Public Health Water Microbiology, characterizing bacteriophages as indicators of human fecal contamination. Dr. Santiago-Rodriguez conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Diego, focusing on virome research related to Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, urinary tract infections, and antibiotic use. She was also a recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to conduct research on ancient microbiomes and viromes at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She later joined the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) Center for Translational Microbiology to develop standards and controls for microbiome research. Dr. Santiago-Rodriguez has published over 50 articles and book chapters in water microbiology, bacteriophages, as well as ancient and modern microbiomes and viromes.

David Yarmosh is a lead bioinformatician in ATCC’s Sequencing and Bioinformatics Center. He’s a graduate of New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering. He has been working in large data aggregation and analysis since 2013 and microbial genomics with a focus on biosurveillance R&D efforts since 2016. David has led international training exercises in Peru and Senegal, sharing metagenomic analytical capabilities. His interests include genomics database construction, metadata collection, drug resistance mechanisms, bioinformatics standards, and machine learning. Since joining ATCC in 2020, David has worked extensively in SARS-CoV-2 classification, epidemiology, and genomics evaluation, including enhanced and uniform variant reporting. He has contributed more broadly to genomics reporting and analytical standardization and he has helped develop the podcast Behind the Biology, which he now hosts.