VT News features our research!
VT News highlighted our research on tracking Listeria from soil to food!
2026
LEAPHers present at ASM Microbe.
Our group had a fun time at ASM Microbe in Washington DC! Ying-Xian presented his work on the eco...
New paper live in Bioresour Technol!
Our collaborative paper on microbial aggregation, trophic cooperation, and genomic adaptation dur...
New lead paper live in Water Environ Res!
The paper on the assessment of a passive sampler for aquifer microbial community profiling co-led...
Jingqiu receives the Larry Beuchat Young Researcher Award!
Jingqiu has been selected as the recipient of the Larry Beuchat Young Researcher Award by the Int...
Lab celebration
Congratulations to Leela and Keegan on graduation, and congratulations to Emily and Ying-Xian on ...
Jingqiu receives the Outstanding New Assistant Professor Award!
Jingqiu has been selected as a recipient of the Outstanding New Assistant Professor Award from VT...
LEAPHers excel at the Dennis Dean Conference.
This year, three of our undergraduate researchers showcased their research at the Dennis Dean Und...
New preprint out!
Our new preprint Genomic diversification underlies the broad ecological range of Salmonella enter...
LEAPHers shine at the IGC Symposium.
Ying-Xian and Emily presented their work at the Annual Interfaces of Global Change Graduate Resea...
Abbi awarded prestigious NSF GRFP!
We are excited to share that Abbi has been awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation Gr...
New lead paper live in ISME Commun!
Our paper on the genome flexibility of Listeria monocytogenes has been published in ISME Communic...
Jingqiu gives an invited talk at Penn State.
Jingqiu gave a talk about the role of deterministic and stochastic processing in driving bacteria...
Shirley receives the SURF fellowship!
Congratulations to Shirley for being selected as a recipient of the Fralin Summer Undergraduate R...
Ying-Xian presents at the GPSS Symposium.
Ying-Xian gave an oral presentation about on the ecological and genomic strategies used by motile...
Haeil presents at the KSEA Conference.
Haeil presented his work on the fecal contamination in urban watersheds at the KSEA (Korean-Ameri...
VT News features our research!
VT News highlighted our research on the hotspots and exposure risk of bacterial pathogens in soils!
New paper live in Water Res!
Our collaborative paper Microenvironment-driven interactions between mobile genetic elements and ...
New paper live in Bioresour Technol!
Our collaborative paper Longitudinal multi-omics reveal phase-dependent viral adaptive strategies...
Two articles released!
Ying-Xian has published two articles aimed at a general audience: [Tapping into the Success of Sc...
Ying-Xian wins an ASM FLMF Microbe Travel Award!
Big congrats to Ying-Xian for being awarded an ASM FLMF Microbe Travel Award, which will support ...
VT News features our collaborative work!
A VT News story featuring our collaborative paper Nanoplastics induce prophage activation and quo...
Welcome Teagan!
Teagan Marsh joined our lab as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome!
New preprint out!
Our new preprint Motile and non-motile Listeria species adopt distinct genomic and ecological str...
Lab received funding from HRSD!
Great news to start the spring semester — we’ve received funding from the Hampton Roads Sanitatio...
2025
New preprint out!
Our new preprint Assessment of a passive sampler for aquifer microbial community profiling and co...
New lead paper live in GeoHealth!
A new paper co-led by Calder Lab and our lab is published in GeoHeath! We identified the hotspots...
Winter celebration!
A winter celebration on a snowy day - gifts, laughter, and warmth all around. One wonderful semes...
Shirley presents at the ASM-VA Meeting.
Shirley presented her work on the persistence and transfer of Listeria in hydroponic systems at t...
Ying-Xian and Emily named NE CASC fellows!
Congratulations to Ying-Xian and Emily for being accepted to join the 2025-26 fellows program of ...
LEAPHers attend the CeZAP Symposium.
Ying-Xian, Haeil, and Jingqiu attended the 2025 CeZAP Infectious Disease Research Symposium. Jing...
Emily speaks at ATRN.
Emily gave a talk about soilborne pathogen exposure risk at the ATRN 2025 Annual Health Summit, A...
Ying-Xian delivers an outreach talk.
Ying-Xian talked about community-centered science outreach at the conference “Engagement Scholars...
New paper live in Water Res!
New collaborative paper Nanoplastics induce prophage activation and quorum sensing to enhance bio...
Leela wins the CALS Abo Grant!
Congratulations to Leela, who was awarded the Abo Grant from the College of Agriculture and Life ...
Shirley wins the CMDA Undergraduate Research Award!
Congratulations to Shirley, who received an Undergraduate Research Award from Computational Model...
Mia defends their thesis!
Congratulations, Mia, for successfully defending their MS thesis!
Lab welcomes Haeil and Abbi!
Two Ph.D. students, Haeil Byeon and Abigail Green, joined us! Haeil is a CEE student in the Envir...
LEAPHers attend IAFP.
Ying-Xian, Leela, and Jingqiu participated in the IAFP 2025 Annual Meeting in Cleveland, OH. Ying...
Ying-Xian wins the CAFPNA 2025 Student Presentation Competition!
Ying-Xian has being selected as a winner of the 2025 Student Presentation Competition for his pre...
Ying-Xian presents at ASM Microbe.
Ying-Xian presented his work on soil antibiotic resistance at the 2025 ASM Microbe Conference hel...
Ying-Xian wins the IAFP-CAFPNA Student Travel Scholarship!
Ying-Xian has being selected as a recipient of the prestigious 2025 IAFP-CAFPNA Student Travel Sc...
Jingqiu wins the MGI Scaling Scholarship Award!
It is a great honor to receive the Major Grants Initiative (MGI) Scaling Scholarship Award. We th...
New paper live in J Food Prot!
New collaborative paper Temporal, seasonal, and patient demographic trends among culture-confirme...
Mia presents at AEESP.
Mia presented their work on the passive sampler for aquifer microbial communities at the AEESP 20...
Lab celebration
We celebrated another successful semester of LEAPHers’ achievements and Mia’s upcoming graduation...
New paper live in Environ Sci Technol!
New collaborative paper Enhanced phytopathogen biofilm control in soybean phyllosphere by the pho...
Leela, Keegan, and Sai receive poster awards!
Leela has been awarded first Place for the ICTAS Critical Technologies Award and Keegan and Sai h...
LEAPHers shine at the Dennis Dean Conference.
This year, three of our undergraduate researchers showcased their research at the Dennis Dean Und...
LEAPHers excel at the IGC Symposium.
Ying-Xian and Emily rocked the 10th Annual Interfaces of Global Change (IGC) Graduate Research Sy...
New preprint out!
Our new preprint Disentangling the impacts of abiotic and biotic environmental factors and disper...
Article featured in Editors’ Highlights!
Our article entitled Differential roles of deterministic and stochastic processes in structuring ...
New paper live in Environ Sci Technol!
New collaborative paper Bacterium-phage interactions enhance biofilm resilience during membrane b...
Ying-Xian speaks at the GPSS Symposium.
Ying-Xian gave an oral presentation about bacterial pangenome fluidity at the 41st Annual GPSS Gr...
New lead paper live in Nat Commun!
Another lead paper is published in Nature Communications! We discussed the biogeographic patterns...
Jingqiu gives an invited talk at Biochem.
Jingqiu gave a seminar about the role of environmental factors in shaping the genomic variation o...
Ying-Xian speaks at CeZAP SPARK.
Ying-Xian gave a seminar about bacterial pangenome fluidity at the CeZAP Seminar Series on Pathog...
New paper live in Environ Sci Technol!
New collaborative paper Synergistic treatment of reverse osmosis membrane biofouling with quorum ...
New paper live in J Food Prot!
Excited to see our collaborative paper Initializing a public repository for hosting benchmark dat...
New paper live in Environ Sci Technol!
Our collaborative paper Bacterium-phage symbiosis facilitates the enrichment of bacterial pathoge...
New paper live in Microbiome!
Our collaborative paper Adaptive modification of antiviral defense systems in microbial community...
New semester celebration
This semester’s lab meetings started on a high note, filled with shared laughter and high energy....
2024
Ying-Xian selected for GPP!
Congratulations to Ying-Xian on being selected to participate in the Global Perspective Program, ...
Lab receives an I2GROW Mini Grant!
We are excited to participate in the I2GROW project funded by U.S. Department of Agriculture to s...
Lab welcomes two undergrad researchers!
Two undergraduate students, Yiqing (Shirley) Wang and Kailey Mcgrath, have joined us! Shirley is ...
VT News highlights our research!
How the dirt under our feet could affect human health? A story about our paper on Listeria antibi...
Emily speaks at AGU24.
Emily gave an oral presentation about our collaborative work on the exposure risk of soil pathoge...
Keegan admitted to NSF LSAMP!
Congrats to Keegan for being admitted into the NSF Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participat...
Lead paper live in Nat Commun!
The paper led by our group is published in Nature Communications! Congratulations to LEAPHers Yin...
Mia presents at ABRCMS.
Mia presented their work on soil microbial community assembly at the 2024 Annual Biomedical Resea...
New paper live in Water Res!
Our collaborative paper Metagenomic insights into microalgae-bacterium-virus interactions and vir...
Mia presents at the NRT Meeting.
Mia presented their work on microbial risk assessment in aquifer recharge at the 2024 NSF Researc...
Leela receives a GCC research grant!
Congratulations to Leela for receiving an Undergraduate Research Grant from VT Global Change Cent...
Ying-Xian speaks at the CeZAP ID Symposium.
Ying-Xian gave an oral presentation on the ecological niches and transmission of soil Listeria mo...
Mia receives two travel awards!
Congratulations to Mia on winning a travel award for both the 2024 NSF Research Traineeship (NRT)...
Welcome Ashlyn!
Ashlyn O’Neill joined us as an undergraduate researcher. She majors in civil engineering with an ...
Welcome Emily!
Emily Matthews is a Ph.D. student in CEE co-advised by Dr. Ryan Calder in the Department of Publi...
Two articles released!
Ying-Xian has published two articles aimed at a general audience! An Unnoticeable Foodborne Illne...
UG researchers present at the VT Summer Research Conference.
Our undergraduate researchers, Keegan and Audrey, presented their work on microbial sampler and L...
Ying-Xian presents at IAFP.
Ying-Xian presented his work on the ecological niches of Listeria monocytogenes lineages in soils...
Mia presents at the SWIFT workshop.
It was a pleasure visiting the HRSD SWIFT Research Center! Mia talked about the impact of adsorpt...
LEAPHers shine at ASM Microbe.
Ying-Xian and Mia attended the 2024 ASM Microbe Conference held in Atlanta, GA, where they showca...
Jingqiu wins the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award!
It is a great honor to receive the 2024 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. We thank ...
Welcome Audrey!
Audrey Barnes joined the lab as a CEED summer undergraduate researcher. Welcome!
New paper live in Chem Eng J!
Our collaborative work on the symbiotic bacteriophages in activated sludge flocs is published in ...
New paper live in mSphere!
The work on the Salmonella spp. prophages that we took part in is published in mSphere!
2024 goodbye party
We had a goodbye party to honor four of our graduating students: Hardeep, Sandeep, Shan, and Shan...
Sandeep defends his thesis!
Congratulations, Sandeep, for successfully defending his MS thesis!
Lab receives a grant from GCC!
Grateful to the Global Change Center for funding us to study the impact of hydrological condition...
Keegen presents at the Dennis Dean Conference.
Keegen presented his first research project about microbial samplers at the Dennis Dean Undergrad...
Ying-Xian receives a CeZAP grant!
Congratulations to Ying-Xian on winning the CeZAP ID IGEP Graduate Student Mini-Grant!
Keegan admitted to MOAP!
Congratulations to Keegan on being accepted into the 2024 MAOP Undergraduate Summer Research Inte...
LEAPHers excel at the GPSS Research Symposium.
Ying-Xian and Mia participated at the 40th Annual GPSS Graduate Research Symposium. Ying-Xian won...
Jingqiu gives an invited talk at PSU.
Jingqiu gave a seminar about genomic variation of Listeria and its implication to food safety at ...
Double success for Ying-Xian: GRDP and ASM FLMF!
Big congrats to Ying-Xian for being awarded the VT Graduate Research Development Program (GRDP) F...
Jingqiu speaks at the ATCC/CeZAP workshop.
Jingqiu talked about source attribution of Salmonella at the Zoonotic Disease Research Workshop h...
Mia receives an ASM travel award!
Big congrats to Mia for winning the 2024 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Student and Post...
New review live in Trends Microbiol!
Our review paper Adaptive strategies and ecological roles of phages in habitats under physicochem...
New semester kick-off meeting
We kicked off this semester’s lab meeting with great energy. Look forward to a semester of breakt...
Welcome Sai and Leela!
Sai Ashraya Chegu and Leela Ohri joined the lab as undergraduate researchers. Welcome, Sai and Le...
Jingqiu speaks at MEEhubs2024.
Jingqiu talked about ecological drivers shaping soil microbial diversity at MEEhubs2024, an innov...
Ying-Xian awarded an ICTAS grant!
Starting off the year with good news. Ying-Xian is awarded the Roop and Kavita Mahajan Fund from ...
2023
Welcome Hardeep!
FNU Hardeep joined the lab for a research project. Welcome, Hardeep!
New minireview live in mBio!
Our minireview paper Taxonomy, ecology, and relevance to food safety of the genus Listeria with a...
Winter celebration!
Another semester comes to a close. We took a moment to celebrate the successes we’ve achieved. We...
Jingqiu gives an invited talk at FST.
Jingqiu talked about genomic variation of in soil-dwelling Listeria at the Department of Food Sci...
Lab welcomes two undergrad researchers!
Two undergraduate students, Keegan Trubenbach and Calla Inman, have joined us! Keegan is a CEE so...
New paper live in J Hazard Mater!
Our collaborative work Microplastics and chemical leachates from plastic pipes are associated wit...
Jingqiu gives a CeZAP seminar.
Jingqiu presented lab’s work on the antibiotic resistance genes in soil-dwelling Listeria in CeZA...
Jingqiu gives an invited talk at UofM.
Jingqiu presented lab’s work on soil microbial diversity across the United States at the Departme...
Jingqiu gives a GBCB seminar.
Jingqiu talked about genomic variation of Listeria species isolated across the US at a Genetics, ...
New paper live in Front Genet!
A new metagenomics pipeline for antibiotic resistance genes that we contributed to is published i...
Lab awarded an ORAU grant!
We are happy to share that our ORAU-Directed Research and Development proposal has been selected ...
Lab awarded an EPA grant!
Our lab is honored to be part of the effort to evaluate the risk and performance of enhanced aqui...
New lead paper live in Nat Commun!
Another paper published back to back! The paper on the microdiversity of the vaginal microbiome i...
New lead paper live in ISME Commun!
Our paper on the genomic variation of Listeria species in natural and food-associated environment...
Lab welcomes three new members!
Three graduate students, Ying-Xian Goh, Mia Riddley, and Shan Askari, joined us! Ying-xian is an ...
Jingqiu speaks at IAFP.
Jingqiu gave a talk about the ecology of antibiotic resistance genes in Listeria at the IAFP 2023...
Welcome Balu!
Balu Anupoju joined the lab for a research project. Welcome, Balu!
Lab awarded a 4-VA Research Grant!
Our lab has been awarded a 4-VA Collaborative Research Grant to continue working on the predictio...
Shannon presents at AEESP.
Shannon and Jingqiu attended 2023 Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors...
Jingqiu presents at ASM Microbe.
Jingqiu presented her work on the genomic diversification of Listeria monocytogenes at the 2023 A...
Jingqiu awarded a New Faculty Mentoring Grant!
Jingqiu has received a New Faculty Mentoring Grant from the Executive Vice President and Provost ...
Jingqiu speaks at an ASM conference.
Jingqiu gave an early career talk about antibiotic resistance genes in Listeria at the Washington...
Welcome Aruj!
Aruj Nayak joined the lab for research projects. Welcome Aruj!
Jingqiu named an ISCE Scholar!
We are very excited and grateful that our proposal is selected for the 2023-2024 Scholars Program...
Lab awarded a 4-VA Pre-Tenure Faculty Research Grant!
Our lab is awarded a 4-VA Pre-Tenure Faculty Research Grant to develop a computational tool to pr...
Jingqiu awarded the Peggy Cotter Award!
Jingqiu is selected as a recipient of the Peggy Cotter Award for Early Career Branch Members to s...
Jingqiu gives an invited talk at UGA.
Jingqiu shared a microbial ecology and evolution framework to unlock novel insights into food saf...
New paper live in Nat Microbiol!
Happy to share that our collaborative paper Restriction endonuclease cleavage of phage DNA enable...
Happy hour!
The LEAPH Lab had a buzzing happy hour! Great local pizza!
New paper live in Nat Microbiol!
We are excited to see our collaborative paperPreterm birth is associated with xenobiotics and pre...
New paper live in Front Microbiol!
Our collaborative paper Salmonella enterica serovar Cerro displays a phylogenetic structure and g...
2022
Welcome Sandeep!
Sandeep Chinnareddy joined the lab for a research project. Welcome Sandeep!
Jingqiu gives an invited webinar to BUT.
Jingqiu gave a webinar about the ecology and evolution of environmentally transmitted and foodbor...
Jingqiu gives an invited talk at an ASM conference.
Jingqiu gave an invited talk at the 2022 Virginia Branch ASM Fall Conference discussing the poten...
Jingqiu interviews with Grad-SWE at UCLA.
Jingqiu shared her stories behind her career path in STEM in an interview with Grad-SWE at UCLA. ...
Welcome Anthony!
Anthony Nguyen joined the lab for a research project. Welcome Anthony!
Lab awarded an ICTAS seed grant!
We’re very honored to receive the ICTAS EFO-O Seed Grant Award to study the source attribution of...
Jingqiu speaks at the CeZAP ID Symposium.
Jingqiu talked about genomic diversification of Listeria monocytogenes at the 2022 CeZAP Infecti...
Lab awarded a CeZAP pilot grant!
We’re very honored to be awarded the CeZAP Faculty Research Pilot Grant to study antimicrobial re...
Welcome Shannon!
Shannon Hepp, our first graduate student, joined the lab. Welcome Shannon!
Lab is up and running!
The LEAPH Lab at VT officially opens its door!