Lillian V. Holdeman Moore

Lillian Haldeman Moore ( Lillian Virginia Haldeman); August 8, 1929 – November 21, 2020) was an American microbiologist who was instrumental in founding The Anaerobe Lab at Virginia Tech in 1970. Haldeman and her colleagues led the world in developing techniques to grow and identify anaerobic bacteria in culture. She was an authority in the field of anaerobic bacteriology and food poisoning.

Early life Lillian Virginia Haldeman—whose name was sometimes misspelled as Holdeman—was born in Moberly, Missouri, in 1929, and nicknamed "Peg". The family moved to Tampa, Florida in 1944, where she graduated valedictorian of Plant High School. She then studied zoology at Duke University, and initially planned on attending medical school. In 1951 she earned her B.S.

She worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for 15 years, where she learned bacteriology and took night classes at the University of Georgia. She married fellow microbiologist and colleague W.E.C. Moore in 1985.

After securing a grant from the National Institutes of Health, she served as associate director of the Anaerobic Bacteriology Laboratory, recruiting John Johnson, Louis C. Smith, and C.S. Cummings to the lab group.

In the initial weeks of a Skylab simulation in the early 1970s, Haldeman observed a significant increase in hydrogen-gas-producing Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (over 26 trillion bacteria) which she linked to stress during the simulation. This increase in B. theta paralleled similar spikes observed in the intestinal population of a diet study volunteer undergoing extreme stress. a laboratory manual that became a standard reference for isolating, culturing and identifying anaerobic bacteria. The latest version was published in 1977 which included additional contributors in the lab. Scientists around the world used their manual as a guide for conducting research on anaerobic bacteria.

In 1976, Haldeman was awarded the title of University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech for contributions to anaerobic bacteriology research.

Later in her career, she studied bacteria associated with periodontitis, gingivitis and other oral bacteria. In 1984, she published research showing that children are significantly more resistant to gingivitis than adults nd have notably different oral bacterial compositions.

Haldeman and her anaerobe lab team had become known internationally for their research in anaerobic microbiology, helping establish Virginia Tech as a leader in bacteriology and veterinary sciences. Holdemania includes Gram-positive, strictly anaerobic and non-spore-forming bacterium from the family of Erysipelotrichaceae, with two known species: Holdemania filiformis and Holdemania massiliensis.

Haldeman died on November 21, 2020.