2025 Meeting

Saturday, November 1, 2025

north carolina a&T State University

greensboro, NC

WHEN & WHERE?

Location: Frye Hall (Academic Classroom Building)

Address: 113 Daniel Street, Greensboro, NC 27401

Date: Saturday, November 1, 2025

Time: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM

Meeting Agenda

MORNING PROGRAM

8:00 AM – 9:00 AM

Check-In & Registration | Breakfast & Poster Setup

9:00 AM – 9:10 AM

Opening Remarks | Auditorium 101

Leonard L. Williams, Ph.D., MBA – Professor & Director, CEPHT
Amira Ayad, Ph.D. – President-Elect, NC-ASM

9:10 AM – 10:00 AM

Keynote Lecture: Sam Brown, Ph.D., ASM Distinguished Lecturer (ASMDL)

Topic: Can We Reverse the Rise of Antibiotic Resistance?

10:10 AM – 10:40 AM

Rishipal Bansode, Ph.D (CEPHT-NC A&T)

Topic: Dietary Polyphenols and Allergy: From Cellular Mechanisms to Emerging Gut Health Perspectives

10:45 AM – 11:00 AM

Morning Break | Visit Sponsor & Vendor Tables | Networking | 2nd Floor Lobby

ORAL PRESENTATION SESSIONS - MORNING BLOCK

Poster & Oral Presentations Schedule

NC-ASM 2025 Abstract Booklet

11:00 AM – 12:20 PM

Concurrent Oral Sessions (3 Rooms)

Room 107: Immunology, Host-Microbe Interactions & AMR (IHM)
Room 108: Virology, Mycology & Emerging Microbes (VME)
Room 109: Environmental & Food Microbiology (EFM)

Poster Session 1 (IHM, MCB) | 2nd Floor Lobby

MIDDAY PROGRAM

12:20 PM – 1:30 PM

Lunch Break | Visit Sponsor & Vendor Tables | Networking

12:45 PM – 1:20 PM

NC-ASM Board Lunch Meeting

ORAL PRESENTATION SESSIONS & GUEST TALKS - AFTERNOON BLOCK

Poster & Oral Presentations Schedule

NC-ASM 2025 Abstract Booklet

1:30 PM – 2:10 PM

Invited Speaker Sessions

1:30 PM – 1:50 PM: Rachel N. DuMez-Kornegay, Ph.D (UNC-Chapel Hill)

Topic: Elucidating the host response to the consumption of Kombucha.

1:50 PM – 2:10 PM: Jude Ewunkem, PhD (WSSU)

Topic: Bacterial Adaptive Responses to Green and Chemically Synthesized Nanoparticles: Implications for Resistance Development

2:10 PM – 4:00 PM

Concurrent Oral Sessions (3 Rooms)

Room 107: Immunology, Host-Microbe Interactions & AMR (IHM)
Room 108: Immunology, Host-Microbe Interactions & AMR (IHM)
Room 109: Molecular, Cellular & Biotechnology & AI Applications (MCB), Clinical & Public Health Microbiology (CPM), and Immunology, Host-Microbe Interactions & AMR (IHM)

Poster Session 2 (EFM, CPM, VME) | 2nd Floor Lobby

CLOSING PROGRAM

4:20 PM – 5:30 PM

Awards Ceremony & Recognitions | Auditorium 101

Student Poster and Oral Presentation Awards
Sponsor Recognition
NC-ASM Officer Acknowledgments

5:30 PM

Mix & Mingle | Closing Remarks

AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR MICROBIOLOGY DISTINGUISHED LECTURER

Sam Brown, Ph.D.

Georgia Institute of Technology

Samuel (Sam) Brown, Ph.D., is a microbiologist in the School of Biological Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). His Ph.D. (Cambridge, 2001) was in theoretical evolutionary biology. During his Ph.D. studies, he developed theory to understand the social lives of microbes, with a focus on collective behaviors (e.g., secreted factors and their control by quorum-sensing).

Following a theory postdoc in France, he did a wet-lab postdoc at UT Austin, focusing on pathogen behaviors, combining theory and data to unpick the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of a range of bugs. Following a junior faculty position at Oxford, he opened a wet lab in Edinburgh with a focus on the opportunistic pathogen and model social organism Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In 2015, his lab moved to Georgia Tech, where its scope was broadened to incorporate community ecological dynamics in polymicrobial “infection microbiomes” and the antibiotic resistance crisis. In addition to studying basic biological questions on pathogen dynamics, the lab explores the applied consequences of the work and seeks to leverage their findings to produce “evolution proof” means of pathogen control.

Website: https://brownlab.biology.gatech.edu

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

CO-CHAIRS

Leonard Williams, Ph.D.
Amira Ayad, Ph.D.

ORGANZING COMMITTEE

Si Zhu, Ph.D.
Ms. Shurrita S. Davis
Ms. Priscilla D. Randolph
Ms. Donna Via

STUDENT LEADS

Nadia Bell
Addison Bonner
Delmonica Farrior
Jaiden Harrison
Jordan Tolbert
Jordan Whitt