Abigail A. Salyers

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Abigail A. Salyers
Microbiologist
BornDecember 24, 1942
Louisville, KY
DiedNovember 6, 2013
Urbana, IL
OccupationMicrobiologist
ChildrenGeorgia E. Will

Abigail A. Salyers (1942 – 2013) was a microbiologist who pioneered the field of

mobile genetic elements. At a time where the prevailing paradigm was focused on E. coli as a model organism, Salyers emphasized the importance of investigating the breadth of microbial diversity. She was one of the first to conceptualize the human body as a microbial ecosystem. Over the course of her 40-year career, she was presented with numerous awards for teaching and research and an honorary degree from ETH Zurich, and served as president of the American Society for Microbiology.[1][2][3][4]

Education

Abigail Salyers was born in Louisville, Kentucky and attended high school in Arlington, Virginia at Wakefield High School. During high school, she was at risk of expulsion due to being pregnant, but she graduated in 1959 and with the help of her English teacher, Mrs. Baker, applied to college.[1][3][5] Salyers went on to receive her undergraduate degree in Mathematics in 1963 and a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics in 1969 from George Washington University, Washington, D.C.[1]

Career

Four years into her first academic position teaching and researching physics at St. Mary's College, Salyers chose to switch her focus to microbiology as a post-doctoral researcher at Virginia Polytech Institute. She began to study the metabolism of the

anaerobic microbes of the human intestinal tract, particularly the anaerobic bacterium Bacteroidetes.[1][3][6][4] In 1978, Salyers started her own lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. There she met her long-time life partner and fellow professor Jeffrey Gardner, as well as her research associate and collaborator Nadja Shoemaker. In 1983, she became the first woman professor in the Microbiology Department to be granted tenure, and in 1988 was promoted to full professor.[1][2][3] In 2004, she was named the G. William Arends Professor in Molecular and Cellular Biology.[2]

As a lecturer at the University of Illinois, Salyers worked tirelessly to revitalize the inaccessible medical school curriculum. In her teaching, she emphasized the importance of microbiology as the defining biological discipline of the coming decades and its relevance to her students. To accompany her work in the classroom, she co-authored the textbook Bacterial Pathogenesis: A Molecular Approach with Dixie Whitt, with whom later collaborations followed. As a result of her educational efforts, Salyers was invited to be Co-Director of the Microbial Diversity Summer Course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA for the summers of 1995–1999.[1][3][5]

Salyers’ microbiome research was based in the study of the physiology of the anaerobic bacterium Bacteroides, with particular regard to their

horizontal transfer of these mobile antibiotic resistance genes and discovered that Bacteroides acted as a reservoir of these genes in the human colon. The many tools that Salyers developed to work with her “funny bugs” and the discoveries she made are responsible for the prominence of Bacteroidetes as a model organism in microbiology today.[3][7]

In 2001, Salyers was named President of the 40,000 member

expert testimony regarding genetically modified plants and antibiotic use in agriculture to several regulatory agencies in the U.S. and Europe.[9]

In 2014 after her death, the Salyers Symposium was held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to commemorate her life and work. She was cited as the inspiration for the book Women in Microbiology.[3][10]

Awards for research and teaching

  • 2009 National Graduate Teacher Award in Microbiology.[1][11]
  • Honorary Doctorate from ETH University in Zurich, Switzerland in 2001.[1][6]
  • Pasteur Award for Research and Teaching, the All-Campus Award for Excellence in Teaching and Golden Apple Award (three times) for Medical School Teaching at the University of Illinois.[2]
  • An endowed student scholarship for the Microbial Diversity Course was established in her name after her death.[1]
  • Named the G. William Arends Professor in Molecular and Cellular Biology from 2014 to 2013.[1]
  • An endowed student scholarship for the Microbial Diversity Course was established at the University of Chicago Marine Biological Laboratory in her name after her death.[1]
  • The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign holds the Abigail Salyers Distinguished Early Career Researcher Seminar Series.[12]
  • The University of Chicago Marine Biological Laboratory holds the Abigail Salyers Endowed Lecture in Microbial Diversity.[13]

Selected publications

Scholia has an author profile for Abigail A. Salyers.
  • Wilson, Brenda A.; Salyers, Abigail A.; Whitt, Dixie D.; Winkler, Malcolm E. (2011). Bacterial Pathogenesis: A Molecular Approach. ASM Press.
    ISBN 9781555814182
    .
  • Wax, Richard G.; Lewis, Kim; Taber, Harry; Salyers, Abigail A. (19 September 2019). Bacterial Resistance to Antimicrobials. CRC Press.
    ISBN 9780367388072
    .
  • Salyers, Abigail A.; Whitt, Dixie D. (2005). Revenge of the Microbes. ASM Press.
    ISBN 9781555812980
    .
  • Saylers, Abigail A.; Anamika, Gupta; Yanping, Wang (September 2004). "Human intestinal bacteria as reservoirs for antibiotic resistance genes". Trends in Microbiology. 12 (9): 412–6.
    Wikidata Q28279671
    .

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Abigail A. Salyers". 2022-03-15. Archived from the original on 2022-03-15. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  2. ^ a b c d "The School of Molecular and Cellular Biology | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign". 2022-04-23. Archived from the original on 2022-04-23. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  3. ^
    ISBN 9781555819538
    .
  4. ^ a b c Benjamin, Claire (2013-11-13). "Abigail Salyers: 1942 - 2013". Illinois IGB. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  5. ^ a b c d Salyers, Abigail A.; Hagen, Ashley (2009-08-13). "Abigail Salyers - The Art of Teaching Science". Meet the Microbiologist. Archived from the original on 2020-06-04. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
  6. ^ a b Lindenmeyer, Jakob (2001-11-26). "Aufklärung Ist Die Beste Waffe!". ETHLife.
  7. ^ Salyers, Abigail A. (2013-11-12). "Revenge of the Microbes: Are Antibiotics in Danger?". YouTube. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  8. S2CID 42221813
    .
  9. PMID 12901895
    .
  10. ^ "Microbial Diversity – A Tribute to the Life and Work of Abigail Salyers". School of Molecular & Cellular Biology. 2014-06-24.
  11. ^ "American Society for Microbiology honors Abigail A. Salyers". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  12. ^ "Microbiology Seminars and Events". Microbiology Seminars and Events | School of Molecular & Cellular Biology | UIUC. University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.
  13. ^ "Microbial Diversity Aims to Endow Two Lectureships". Marine Biological Laboratory.
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