The Noyes Lab

September 09, 2020

Noelle headlined the 2020 Meat Industry Food Safety Conference to discuss the application of whole-genome sequencing for food safety purposes, with an emphasis on computational challenges. It was a great discussion with industry stakeholders who are trying to continuously improve food safety programs, including through use of advanced sequencing technologies such as WGS.

July 31, 2020

Drs. Enrique Doster, Noelle Noyes and Paul Morley developed and taught a virutal 12-week short course on statistical analysis for metagenomic data.  The course included over 40 participants from over ten different US institutions and companies who met on a weekly basis to discuss new concepts, techniques and challenges from the self-taught content. This inaugural course received good reviews and the team hopes to offer it again in the future!

June 10, 2020

Noelle joined the Swine Working Group of the International Consortium for Antimicrobial Stewardship in Agriculture, a collaborative of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research. This public-private partnership aims to curb antimicrobial resistance through innovation, collaboration and scientific discovery. It is an exciting initiative with many dedicated individuals working together on this important issue, and Noelle is honored to join these efforts!

March 30, 2020

The USDA OREI openROAMER project team presented an eOrganics webinar about the microbiome and how it may impact dairy production today and in the future.  The audience was highly interactive and diverse, representing farmers, veterinarians, extension agents and researchers.  Many great questions were posed during the webinar, which is available here. 

December 19, 2019

Noelle joined the Animal Working Group of the Minnesota One Health Antibiotic Stewardship Collaborative. This interdisciplinary group is working to combat antimicrobial resistance using a One Health approach, and has developed numerous resources for diverse audiences and stakeholders. It was very apparent at the 2019 annual meeting that this is a dedicated and passionate group, and Noelle is excited to contribute to these efforts!

November 18, 2019

Noelle spoke with members of the Minnesota Beef Council Board of Directors about the opportunities and limitations of metagenomic data, and how these relate to beef production. It was a lively discussion and a great opportunity to talk about the applications of sequencing technology in livestock production. A big thanks to the Minnesota Beef Council for their generous hosting -- including some great food!

October 25, 2019

Noelle spoke about antimicrobial use and resistance at the annual meeting of the Western Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians, held in beautiful downtown Saskatchewan.  It was an exciting meeting with many great speakers talking about the latest research and production results in the swine industry. Thanks to WCASV for hosting such a great meeting and for being such generous hosts!

August 26, 2019

Members of the NOCC project team traveled to Norway to conduct research and outreach activities.  Hosted by Drs. Henning Sørum and Katrine Lekang at NMBU and University of Oslo, the team sampled in the fjords of Norway, attended the Aquanor conference, spoke with aquaculture producers, gave several research presentations, and hosted the Metagenomics Bioinformatics Workshop for its international premiere!  It was a jam-packed trip, but full of incredible memories. The hospitality of our Norwegian colleagues was unsurpassed, and it was tough to leave the beautiful country. Until next time, Norway!

May 27, 2019

Noelle traveled to beautiful Burlington, Vermont to speak about the use of metagenomic sequence data in food production as part of the NetSci 2019 session "Networks in Food Systems and Nutrition".  This data-centric conference was full of interesting seminars about utilizing "big data" across many different life sciences disciplines. It was especially fun to see the central role of graduate students throughout the conference. A big "thank you" to the graduate students who coordinated the event and hosted Noelle's visit and talk!

May 22, 2019

Noelle was invited by the European Commission Joint Research Centre to participate in a Workshop on Antimicrobial Resistance Databases in beautiful Varano Borghi, Italy.  This important effort is meant to support all of the work being done on sequence data, databases and ontologies related to antimicrobial resistance -- and to help advance research and surveillance.  The Joint Research Centre was a wonderful host, and facilitated some very important discussions between current AMR resource developers, including the MEGaRES and AMR++ resources.

May 02, 2019

The Noyes Lab hosted a “Bioinformatics and Statistics Workshop for Resistome Analysis”, supported by the Norwegian Centennial Chair, the UMN Graduate School, UMN Extension, the College of Veterinary Medicine, and West Texas A&M University.  The 2-day course included ~45 participants from 4 Universities, 4 UMN Colleges, the VA Medical Center, and several industry groups.  In addition to teaching concepts related to next-generation sequencing and antimicrobial resistance, participants received hands-on training in analysis of metagenomic microbiome-resistome data.  By utilizing Amazon Web Services and Shinyapps.io, the workshop provided each participant with individual, real-time access to high-performance computing capabilities to conduct “big data” analytics.

March 18, 2019

Noelle was fortunate to receive support from the Veterinary Population Medicine Department to attend Engaging Intergovernmental Organizations 2019, organized by the Center for Animal Health and Food Safety.  With stops in Paris, Geneva and Rome to visit OIE, WHO, WTO and FAO, Noelle learned an enormous amount about these important organizations, and was especially interested to hear about their tripartite work on AMR.  The trip included extensive discussions about One Health and the important role of veterinarians in spearheading efforts in this arena.  It is always fun to represent the veterinary profession, and this outreach event was no exception!

April 17, 2019

Chris presented at the 2019 Minnesota Dairy Health Conference, introducing our USDA project that aims to leverage the microbiome as a source of new tools in mastitis prevention and treatment.  Chris did a great job with a lightning talk and follow-up poster presentation, and many of the attending dairy producers were interested in learning more about the newly-launched project.

March 15, 2019

Noelle spoke with Pig Health Today's Joe Feeks about the use of next-generation sequencing technologies to better understand antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in swine production systems.  Thanks to Joe for a great discussion!

January 10, 2019

ILSI 2019 was a great program with a wealth of information about food safety and nutrition.  Noelle was invited to speak about the use of shotgun metagenomics to understand the microbial ecology of post-harvest processes in beef production.  It was a great session, and Noelle looks forward to attending many more ILSI meetings in the future!

September 03, 2018

Our USDA NIFA-funded openROAMER project got its own website, which we plan to update regularly with useful project updates and related resources.  We hope to make this a great portal for dairy producers interested in the microbiome and how it may help to control mastitis.  Take a gander and let us know of any additional resources we could add to the page!

September 28, 2018

Noelle was invited to speak on a scientific panel at a public meeting of PACCARB.  The topic of the meeting was The Environment and One Health, and Noelle spoke on a panel about "Detection and Control of Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance in the Environment."  The meeting included scientific experts across a variety of fields, all working on the issue of antimicrobial resistance using a One Health approach.  It was great to be part of this effort and to hear the public's views on this important topic.

August 31, 2018

Noelle was able to volunteer at her first-ever Minnesota State Fair, during her first summer as a Minnesotan!  And even better, she volunteered as a veterinarian at the Miracle of Birth Center, where visitors can see farm animals giving birth, and interact with baby pigs, cows and sheep.  Noelle was assigned to the sows and piglets, and had a total blast interacting with the public and talking about livestock production.  If you're ever in Minnesota in late August, we highly recommend visiting the State Fair (fun fact: it has the highest attendance in the country)!

August 31, 2018

Noelle was invited to speak about her experiences as an early-career DVM/PhD graduate, at the 2nd National Colloquium for Combined DVM/PhD Biomedical Scientists at Texas A&M University.  She joined several other recent (as well as more seasoned!) dual-degree holders in a panel session that covered a range of topics pertinent to veterinary scientists.  After the Colloquium, Noelle was able to stay for the 2018 National Veterinary Scholars Symposium, which featured exciting research from hundreds of current veterinary student researchers.  It is great to see the amazing scientific contributions of the veterinary community, and Noelle sends a wholehearted "thank you" to the conference organizers and sponsors.

July 05, 2018

Noelle joined members of the UMN Animal Sciences Beef Team, several new AgREETT extension faculty, and Mark Malecek from the MN Beef Council to spend the day touring UMN beef facilities in Rosemount and Grand Rapids, MN.  It was a beautiful summer Minnesota day and we learned a lot about facilities available for research, education and extension; as well as current happenings in the MN beef industry.  Thanks to our hosts Megan Webb and Alfredo DiCostanzo for a great day!

April 05, 2018

Chris was a Grand Awards Judge in the Math and Computer Science division of the 63rd Annual Colorado Science and Engineering Fair held at Colorado State University on April 5, 2018. Over 325 middle school and high-school students from all around Colorado competed for awesome prizes and a chance to present their work at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Chris’s favorite project used word vectors and stylistic features to assign writing authorship.

March 15, 2018

Noelle spoke about antimicrobial resistance in livestock production at the One Health Session of the 2018 Annual Conference of the Consortium of Universities in Global Health.  It was a lively, interactive session and many great ideas were exchanged.  Many thanks to the session organizers; Dean Hendricks for her invitation; and to Colorado State University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences for financial support!

December 02, 2017

Deriving meaning from shotgun metagenomic data can be a daunting task.  To reach out to researchers who want to utilize this approach, the Microbial Ecology Group at Colorado State University developed and hosted a bioinformatics workshop as part of the 2017 Annual Conference for Research Workers in Animal Diseases.  Noelle and Chris helped to develop and deliver the workshop, which was attended by ~45 researchers across government, industry and academia.

August 31, 2017

Dr. Noyes spoke about shotgun metagenomics, antimicrobial resistance and livestock production at the IBM Research Accelerated Discovery Forum in San Jose, CA.  The Distinguished Speaker invited talk was simulcast across IBM.  There was great interactive discussion during the talk, including a lively Q&A.  Many thanks to IBM Research-Almaden for being such a gracious host!

June 18, 2017

Dr. Noyes was a keynote speaker at the ASM Special Symposium titled "Industrial Metagenomics: Large Scale Analysis for Food Safety."  The symposium was sponsored by Mars and IBM Research through the Consortium for Sequencing the Food Supply Chain.  Dr. Noyes' talk focused on the use of shotgun metagenomic sequencing to improve understanding of antimicrobial resistance in beef production.  It was a great symposium with many great speakers and audience questions.  Thanks to IBM Research and Mars for the invitation and for sponsoring a great event!

April 12, 2016

Read about Dr. Noyes' thoughts on livestock production and our changing society.  "The Importance of Trust Between Food-Producers and Food-Consumers", a guest blog by Dr. Noyes at the HumanNature site, delves into some of the contentious issues surrounding livestock production.

April 04, 2016

Noelle Noyes and Keith Belk were interviewed by Dr. Richard Raymond for a piece in Feedstuffs about the role of shotgun metagenomics in the future of food safety and antimicrobial resistance mitigation efforts.  The article, titled "Shotgun metagenomics: Not just a pretty face", can be read here.

March 23, 2016

The Naked Scientists Podcast interviewed Dr. Noyes about a recent publication looking at the resistome of beef production.  

February 20, 2016

Dr. Noyes spoke about the impending Veterinary Feed Directive, antimicrobial resistance and changes to antimicrobial use guidelines at the 3rd Annual Beef Cattle Seminar of CSU/Weld County Extension.  There were dozens of ranchers in attendance, with many good questions about the practical implications of the VFD as well as some of the more theoretical concepts surrounding antimicrobial use and resistance. It was a great time and I would like to thank Weld Count Extension and Weld County Livestock Association for the invitation to speak and for being such great hosts!

December 06, 2015

Dr. Noyes was a keynote at the annual Schwabe Symposium, hosted by the Association for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine.  She spoke about shotgun metagenomic approaches to understanding antimicrobial resistance, and how this relates to foundational principles of the discipline of epidemiology.  It was a great symposium with engaging speakers, thanks to all who attended!