{"692052":{"#nid":"692052","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Speare Earns Highly Competitive NIH MIRA Grant","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E Assistant Professor\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/people\/lauren%20speare\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;Lauren Speare\u003C\/a\u003E has received a Maximizing Investigators\u2019 Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). According to the\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nigms.nih.gov\/Research\/mechanisms\/MIRA\/Pages\/default\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;MIRA website\u003C\/a\u003E, the awards provide investigators with long-term, flexible funding to pursue ambitious research programs and explore promising new directions as discoveries emerge.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003ESpeare plans to use the funding to build on her lab\u2019s previous finding that\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/news\/tiny-predatory-bacteria-help-protect-endangered-caribbean-corals?utm_source=newsletter\u0026amp;utm_medium=email\u0026amp;utm_content=Tiny%20Predatory%20Bacteria%20Help%20Protect%20Endangered%20Corals\u0026amp;utm_campaign=Daily%20Digest%20-%20Aug.%206%2C%202026\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;naturally occurring predatory bacteria can reduce disease severity in threatened staghorn corals by defending them against harmful bacteria.\u003C\/a\u003E Her new research will move beyond direct predator-prey interactions to better understand how bacterial predators influence the broader microbial communities living on corals.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003E\u201cWe know bacterial predators can alter disease outcomes in corals,\u201d explains Speare. \u201cWhat we don\u2019t yet comprehend is what predation actually does to a complex microbiome inside a living animal. Does a predator simply remove particular bacteria, or can those interactions ripple through the entire microbiome and ultimately affect the host?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003EUnderstanding those changes could reveal why some corals are better able to resist disease and recover from environmental stress than others.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENext Steps\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003ESpeare and researchers from the\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.spearelab.com\/\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;Speare Marine Microbial Ecology Lab\u003C\/a\u003E will investigate microbial predation outside the laboratory in a whole-community context.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003E\u201cMost of what we know about microbial interactions comes from studying one or two populations in a test tube,\u201d says Speare. \u201cBut microbes can behave very differently in a living host. We want to understand those interactions where they are actually happening.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003EHer research will use staghorn corals as a model for observing these interactions over time. Because corals are made up of colonies of genetically identical animal polyps, scientists can repeatedly sample the same colony and track how its microbial communities change. This approach offers a unique window into how microbiomes evolve within an animal host, something that is much more difficult to study\u0026nbsp; in many other animals used in research\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003E\u0022One of the really powerful things about corals as a model is that we can repeatedly observe what is happening within the same host,\u0022 says Speare. \u0022Instead of taking a single snapshot of a microbiome, we can follow how interactions unfold through time and explore how those changes ultimately affect the animal.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003ESpeare hopes the research will uncover how bacteria interact within coral microbiomes and whether those interactions can help corals stay healthy and resist disease.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s unusual to have a model system where fundamental questions about microbial ecology can have such immediate relevance to conservation,\u201d says Speare. \u201cIf we learn something that can improve coral health or restoration efforts, we can communicate those findings directly to the practitioners who are actively working to restore these populations.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESeed Grant Support\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003ESpeare credits two prior grants for providing preliminary data for the MIRA award. A NOAA Ruth D. Gates Coral Restoration Innovation Grant helped her develop disease models and investigate the potential health applications of predatory bacteria in corals. A Georgia Tech\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sustainablesystems.gatech.edu\/research\/seed-grants\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;Sustainability Next Seed Grant\u003C\/a\u003E filled a critical knowledge gap in the research by testing how these bacterial predators interact with healthy corals.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003E\u201cBefore we could ask what microbial predation does within a complex microbiome, we needed to establish that these predators could persist within corals without negatively affecting the host,\u201d says Speare. \u201cThat work gave us the foundation to start asking much bigger ecological questions.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003EThe Sustainability Next Seed Grant, administered by the\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sustainablesystems.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems\u003C\/a\u003E, also supported workshops and collaboration-building efforts that strengthened partnerships with the University of Miami\u2019s Lirman Lab and Rescue a Reef which provide corals and expertise for ongoing restoration-focused research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ELooking Ahead\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003E\u201cThe flexibility that comes with this funding is incredibly exciting,\u201d says Speare. \u201cWe have five years to follow the biology wherever it leads us. If we discover an unexpected interaction or mechanism, we have the freedom to pursue it rather than being constrained by a single predefined project. That gives us the opportunity to build a much broader understanding of how microbial predation influences coral health.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESupport Acknowledgement\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003EResearch reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number 1R35GM165598.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe award will support funding aimed at uncovering new insights that could support future coral restoration and disease management efforts.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The award will support funding aimed at uncovering new insights that could support future coral restoration and disease management efforts."}],"uid":"36607","created_gmt":"2026-08-26 18:29:49","changed_gmt":"2026-08-27 13:56:33","author":"ls67","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-08-26T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-08-26T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680992":{"id":"680992","type":"image","title":"Lauren Speare","body":"\u003Cp\u003EHeadshot\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1787769048","gmt_created":"2026-08-26 18:30:48","changed":"1787769048","gmt_changed":"2026-08-26 18:30:48","alt":"Headshot of a woman","file":{"fid":"265336","name":"55472992335_5e2145b021_k--1-.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/26\/55472992335_5e2145b021_k--1-.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/26\/55472992335_5e2145b021_k--1-.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":963283,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/08\/26\/55472992335_5e2145b021_k--1-.jpg?itok=Dim63k4S"}}},"media_ids":["680992"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/news\/tiny-predatory-bacteria-help-protect-endangered-caribbean-corals?utm_source=newsletter\u0026utm_medium=email\u0026utm_content=Tiny%20Predatory%20Bacteria%20Help%20Protect%20Endangered%20Corals\u0026utm_campaign=Daily%20Digest%20-%20Aug.%206%2C%202026","title":"Tiny Predatory Bacteria Help Protect Endangered Caribbean Corals"}],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"154","name":"Environment"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"180325","name":"coral conservation"},{"id":"192254","name":"cos-climate"},{"id":"192249","name":"cos-community"},{"id":"8057","name":"faculty research"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELaura S. Smith, writer\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["laura.smith@cos.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}