Dr. Lauren Speare Seminar Title: “How to train your predator: harnessing microbial predators for antibiotic-independent coral disease therapy” Bio: Dr. Lauren Speare is an Assistant Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech. Her research explores the mechanisms and ecology of intermicrobial and microbe-host interactions and the consequences of these interactions for ecosystem function. Her lab primarily uses the reef building corals as a study system due to their highly complex microbiomes and ecological importance. Prior to joining Georgia Tech in January of 2024, Lauren completed her PhD at UNC Chapel Hill where she studied bacterial competition between beneficial symbionts of the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes; she went on to do a postdoc at Northeastern studying symbiont transmission in shipworms (wood boring mollusks), and a postdoc at Oregon State University studying parasitism within stony corals.