Michael J. Dilegge

About Michael J. Dilegge

Dirt. The word has been destigmatized in my vocabulary, as it should be in yours. It’s the foundation of our ecosystem, both micro- and macro-biotically. “It’s Time Square on New Year’s Eve all the time” (Elaine Ingham) in all the Earth\'s dirt! This daily salute to life, one that piqued my interest with every step onto the forest floor, was something I underestimated growing up in Appalachia. Left-over food scraps from cooking? Youngin’s eyes bigger than their stomachs? “Throw it to the pile, it’ll be new dirt next season…” My elders scoffed, with blissful ignorance toward the members of our compost pile who routinely decomposed those materials. Childhood meant helping in the garden. Watching dirt grow the plants that later fed us was a natural phenomenon rarely given a second thought. Seed goes in, plant grows out – care for the plant and it will later provide. It wasn’t until romping through the woods: head-down, eyes on the ground, that life’s diversity (seemingly stemming from the dirt) was revealed to me. From red and purple fungi to slippery salamanders burrowing beneath stones, this medium was more than just a yeoman of things humans could benefit from. This medium was also inspiring to me when joining CSU’s Center of Rhizosphere Biology as an undergrad. researcher, and eventually as a master’s student. Through these endeavors I’ve gotten to know the dirt on a much-more intimate level. My interests in soil microbiology emerged during the ever-ongoing search for plant-benefiting residents of the dirt. That feeling of discovery I got stumbling upon those red and purple fungi in childhood? Quickly rekindled when observing mycelial structures cultivate agar-filled Petri dishes. The feeling heightened, even, when I first watched fungal mycelium entangle a nematode through a microscope. Now, as Director of Microbiology at Impello Biosciences, Inc, our research surrounds the intersection of the biological and biochemical - working on what I like to call \"re-modernizing agriculture\". Searching through the dirt for plant- and soil-benefiting microbes, as well as naturally occurring biochemicals to increase crop health properties.Highlighted research from my time at CSU includes:(i) impacts of soil sterilization on plant-microbe interactions;(ii) using C. elegans as a model to identify a nematophagous isolating and identifying a bacterial pathogen from a nematode-insect host complex; and (iv) how gut microbiota in generalist lepidopteran insects are influenced by multigenerational diets.

Experience

1. Director of Microbiology

   Impello Biosciences

   Aug 2020 — Present · US

Education

• Colorado State University

  Master's degree, Horticulture Science:[Rhizosphere Biology]

  2018 — 2020

• Colorado State University

  Bachelor of Science - BS, Horticultural Science

  2015 — 2018