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OUR LEADING MICROBIOME SPEAKERS
Peter Marks
Peter Marks received his graduate degree in cell and molecular biology and his medical degree at New York University and completed Internal Medicine residency and Hematology/Medical Oncology training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He has worked in academic settings teaching and caring for patients and in industry on drug development. He joined the FDA in 2012 as Deputy Center Director for CBER and became Center Director in January 2016.
Nikole Kimes, Ph.D.
Felix Faupel
Diwaker Daver
Bio: Dr. Davar is a translational oncologist whose research interests lies in translational cancer immunotherapy and early-phase clinical trials. He has been instrumental in the development of first-in-human studies evaluating novel agents targeting TIGIT, GITR, TIM-3, CTLA-3 and other immune checkpoints. Based on emerging data implicating intestinal dysbiosis in mediating non-response to PD-1 blockade, he developed a protocol evaluating fecal microbiota transplant in combination with PD-1 blockade to treat PD-1 non-responders. This first-in-human study was selected for funding by Merck to support the clinical costs. Results demonstrating that microbiome modulation reversed primary resistance to anti-PD-1 and augmented anti-tumor immunity were recently published in Science.
Colleen Cutliffe
Joseph Maxwell
Dr. Maxwell trained as an immunologist at Oregon State University and the University of Connecticut Health Center. He spent 15 years supporting early target discovery and program leadership at Amgen, AbbVie, and Finch Therapeutics with an emphasis in inflammatory bowel disease. He is currently an Associate Director of Translational Research and Biomarkers at Takeda supporting clinical programs testing microbiome therapies and other novel modalities in IBD and celiac disease.
Ken Blount
Ken Blount, PhD, is a seasoned director of collaborative research programs in biotech, pharma, clinical, and academic research settings, and his scientific expertise includes antibiotics discovery and development, fecal microbiome analysis, translational medical oncology, and RNA-targeting therapeutics. Prior to joining Rebiotix, Dr. Blount coordinated translational urologic oncology research for the Yale Cancer Center. Previously, he was a cofounder and the Director of Biology at BioRelix, a venture-backed Connecticut biotech that developed new antibiotics to target structured bacterial messenger RNAs. At BioRelix, Dr. Blount led a combined force of internal scientists and external resources that delivered development candidates for treating Clostridium difficile infections. Dr. Blount received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Arkansas and earned a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Colorado Boulder, after which he completed an NIH post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California San Diego.
Tue Hodal
Sonia Timberlake
Sonia is the Senior Vice President of Research at Finch Therapeutics. Sonia is an expert at designing NGS-based algorithms for applications in microbial genomics, immunogenomics, and evolution. Prior to joining Finch, she built and managed AbVitro's computational algorithms and infrastructure, supporting high throughput single-cell immune phenotyping and repertoire sequencing technology. This technology platform was acquired by Juno Therapeutics, where Sonia led a multidisciplinary team to harness native adaptive immune responses for developing engineered cell therapies in oncology.
Sonia graduated from Caltech with a B.Sc in Molecular Biology and received her Ph.D. in Biological Engineering from MIT.
Matthew Henn
Matthew Henn is the Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Seres Therapeutics. He has over 20 years of combined research experience in microbial ecology, genomics and bioinformatics that spans both environmental and human disease applications. He has been involved in the discovery and clinical development of multiple microbiome therapeutics including all of Seres’ product candidates and has authored over 65 peer-reviewed publications. His research has focused on microbial physiology and the functional role of microbes in both environmental and human disease applications, and on the development of genomic and functional tools to study microbial systems. Prior to helping launch Seres in 2012, he was the Director of Viral Genomics and Assistant Director of the Genome Sequencing Center for Infectious Diseases at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He has served on various NIH working groups on antimicrobial resistance and microbiome research, as a scientific advisor for NIH’s Viral Pathogen Bioinformatics Resource Center, and as an ad-hoc reviewer and editor of various peer-reviewed journals. He currently serves on the scientific advisory board of Growcentia, Inc., an agricultural microbiome company. Dr. Henn earned his B.S. in ecology and evolutionary sciences from the University of New Hampshire and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a NASA Earth Systems Sciences Fellow, and trained as an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at Duke University.
Grégory Lambert
Pharmacist and Ph.D. in pharmaceutical technology, Gregory’s carrier is split between Biotech and Pharma where he occupied the positions of Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Executive Officer. Gregory drove the development of a number of drugs, medical devices and food supplement from the laboratory to market. Since 2014, Gregory is the CEO of TargEDys.
Staffan Stromberg
Aaron Anselmo
Anita Patel Jusnes
Carole Schwintner
Denise Kelly
John Weinberg
Rochellys Diaz Heijtz
Romaine Daillere
Romain Daillère completed his PhD in 2015 in the laboratory of Professor Laurence Zitvogel at the Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus (GRCC), Villejuif-Grand Paris/France. His research focuses on the complex interplay between gut microbiota and the efficacy of anticancer regimens. He previously graduated as a biotechnology engineer at the Ecole Supérieure de Biotechnology de Strasbourg (Trinational School of Strasbourg), and worked at the Ragon Institute of MIT, MGH and Harvard in Boston. Co-founder of EverImmune. Co-Inventor of EverImmune Technology. He currently acts as head of the preclinical research of EverImmune.
Rangaprasad Sarangarajan
Ruth Luna Ann
Henrik Bjørn Nielsen
Julius Goepp
Bernat Olle
Dr. Olle is a co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Vedanta Biosciences. He has been a member of the founding teams of several companies of the PureTech portfolio and served as a member of the Board of Directors of Vedanta Biosciences and Follica Biosciences.
In 2013 Dr. Olle was named "Innovator of the Year" in MIT Technology Review Spain's "Innovators under 35" awards. He completed his doctoral work at the Chemical Engineering Department at MIT, where he developed a novel method for large-scale bacterial culture. During his graduate work, Dr. Olle was awarded the "la Caixa" fellowship. Dr. Olle received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Universitat Rovira i Virgili, in the Republic of Catalonia, his M.S. and PhD. in Chemical Engineering Practice from MIT, and his M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He has published his work in journals including Nature and Nature Biotechnology.
James Adams
James B. Adams, Ph.D., is the Director of the Autism/Asperger's Research Program at Arizona State University. His research focuses on the medical causes of autism and how to treat and prevent it including the areas of nutrition (vitamins/minerals, essential fatty acids, carnitine, digestive enzymes, special diets), oxidative stress, gut problems, gut bacteria, toxic metals, and seizures. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles, including over 50 related to autism. He is also the President of the Autism Society of Greater Phoenix, the President of the Autism Nutrition Research Center, the co-leader of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Autism Research Institute, and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Neurological Health Foundation. He has an adult daughter with autism.
Jonathan Solomon
Michal Daniely
Michal is the Director of the Microbiome Initiative within Merck KGaA. In this role, she is responsible for developing technologies and products to advance microbiome research. Over the past 4 years, Michal has been deeply involved in shaping the company’s strategy within the microbiome research field to support the growing need in this market. The company is using core technologies such as microbial fermentation, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), Mass Spectrometry (MS) for metabolomics & proteomics and more, to develop tools for microbiome researchers around the globe. Michal earned her PhD degree in Human Genetics from the Sackler Medical School, Tel Aviv University, Israel. She is the author of many peer review papers and is bringing significant scientific experience. Prior to joining Merck KGaA, she held different roles in medical device and pharma companies, where she managed the R&D activities.
Wayne Finlayson
Wayne has extensive scientific and commercial corporate experience from over 35years in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector. Knowledge in regulatory structures and requirements, and experience in commercialisation of biotechnology, and the practical application of science for the creation of commercial enterprises. Wayne spent his early career years as a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of California, Berkley, following completion of a PhD in Organic Chemistry from La Trobe University. He progressed from initial roles focusing on pure scientific research to more managerial positions in the science and technology sector, including executive director of Both (NASDAQ)and ASX listed companies. Wayne founded Progen Pharmaceuticals in the early 1990’s and was managing director and CEO. After his time at Progen Pharmaceuticals, he worked as a technology investment consultant for high profile clients (including large investment firms) with responsibility for ensuring readiness of investee companies for public listing or other investment. Wayne’s experience, spanning the entire breadth of the biotechnology business spectrum, from post-doctoral researcher, to company founder and CEO, to investment consultant in the Biotechnology sector, means he has a thorough and well-rounded understanding of the challenges and expectations which need to be met to create and successfully commercialise biotechnological and pharmaceutical enterprises.
Stewart Campbell
Dr. Campbell joined Axial in 2016 as Vice President of Research & Development, and was appointed the company’s CEO in February 2021. in 27+ years in the pharma/biotech industry, Dr. Campbell held various leadership roles at Boehringer-Ingelheim, Insmed, Surface Logix, Ancora/Corden Pharma and Axial, Dr. Campbell has played an integral role in the discovery and development of eight clinical stage drug candidates, including the Rho kinase inhibitor belumosudil and TAK-607 (rIGF-1/BP-3). During his career Dr. Campbell has been co-inventor on 20 issued patents. He holds a BSc with Honors in Chemistry from St. Francis Xavier University, a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Queen’s University (Canada), and did post-doctoral research at Duke University.
Christopher Carite
Christophe is a French citizen graduated in industrial pharmacy (PharmD), Microbiology and Business Administration. He has started his industrial career as plant manager for Lallemand Bacteria Division early ninety, then occupied various positions in R&D and Marketing in B2B of Pharmaceuticals Ingredients. He has joined 4D pharma at the early beginning of the company in 2014 and he has assumed the challenge to produce freeze dried strict anaerobic bacteria at the industrial scale level ( 3500 L fermentor, 5 to 20m2 Freeze dryer) to deliver high concentrated LBPs to patients (> 1010 CFU/caps, shelf life up to 2 years) recognised by several patent families granted. In addition, Christophe has integrated “in house” all 4D pharma Manufacturing and Controls under inspected cGMP.
Right now, he assume the position of Process development/CMC Director and member of 4D Pharma Executive team reporting directly to the CEO.
Federico Bolognani
Dr. Bolognani joined Axial Therapeutics in Nov. 2020 bringing with him over 20 years of experience in translational neuroscience research in academia, pharmaceutical and the biotechnology industries. Most recently, Federico served as the Vice President and Head of Clinical Science at VectivBio in Basel, Switzerland. Prior to VectivBio AG, Dr. Bolognani was VP and Head of Clinical Science at Therachon AG, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2019. Prior to Therachon, Dr. Bolognani held various senior-level positions at Roche. As Translation Medicine Leader, Dr. Bolognani led several of Roche’s programs in neuroscience, including the successful Phase 2 balovaptan program in autism spectrum disorder, which was granted Breakthrough Designation in 2018. Dr. Bolognani received his Ph.D. and M.D. from Universidad Nacional de La Pata, Argentina and has an extensive scientific publication record in translational neuroscience research.
Magali Cordaillat
Dr. Magali Cordaillat-Simmons earned her PhD in 2005 at the Université Paris V René Descartes, France, in Pharmacology, and her second Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Regulatory Affairs at the Strasbourg Pharmacy School in 2014. Following her doctoral work with Pr. Ariel Gomez in pediatric nephrology at the University of Virginia from 2006 to 2009, Magali joined the newly-created Pharmabiotic Research Institute (PRI), which is an industrial-scientific Association dedicated to supporting the field in the development and registration of microbiome-based medicinal products for the European market. As Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Director, and in close collaboration with the PRI’s more than 80 industry members and academic partners, she oversees the organization’s EU-wide initiatives, which include EU-funded R&I projects, national and EU-level scientific advice request dossiers, and collaborative Task Group work on shared challenges for the field (CMC, standardization efforts, clinical design).
Dr. Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown
Dr. Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown is the director of the Biodesign Center for Health Through Microbiomes and a Professor at the School of Sustainable Engineering and The Built Environment, at Arizona State University. She has a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Georgia Tech. She was awarded an NSF CAREER award, was selected Fulton Engineering Exemplar Faculty, and was recently awarded Arizona Researcher of the year by AZBio highly cited researcher in her field by Web of Science. She has funding for her research from many federal agencies including NIH, DoE, DoD, and NSF. She is a pioneer in research on gut microbiome and autism. She is author of 4 patents and more than 115 peer-reviewed publications. She specializes on molecular microbial ecology for bioremediation, the use of microbial systems for bioenergy production, and the human intestinal microbial ecology and its relationship to obesity, bariatric surgery, metabolism, and autism.
Christopher Missling
Christopher U Missling, PhD is President and CEO of Anavex Life Sciences, has over 20 years of healthcare industry experience within large pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Prior to joining Anavex, he served as Officer at Curis and ImmunoGen and previously at Aventis (now Sanofi). Christopher’s work is dedicated to finding potential cures for rare neurodevelopmental diseases, like Rett syndrome, autism spectrum disorder as well as degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease by utilizing precision medicine. Dr. Missling is working with his team to advance new potential treatments through clinical trials involving the respective patient’s advocacy groups. Dr. Missling has an MS and PhD from the University of Munich in Chemistry and an MBA from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and WHU.
Dirk Gevers
Dirk Gevers, Ph.D., is Global Head of the Microbiome Solutions team. As a team, we combine our pioneering expertise in the microbiome with the drug discovery, product development, and commercialization know-how of a leading global healthcare company. Together with our colleagues across Janssen and Johnson & Johnson, we have the knowledge and resources to identify the most promising innovations taking place across the microbiome ecosystem and help our partners translate early-stage innovations into product concepts and, ultimately, new solutions with the power to impact human health. Dirk joined from his previous role as Senior Group Leader of Microbial Systems and Communities at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. In this position, Dirk served as a scientific liaison between different organizational components, including the Broad Institute’s data generation platforms and both clinical and analytical collaborators on a number of microbiome-related projects. Dirk’s research efforts at the Broad Institute included the characterization of the microbial imbalance associated with diseases such as Crohn’s disease, type 1 diabetes and colorectal cancer. He was also involved with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Human Microbiome Project (HMP), holding a leading role in the Data Analysis Working Group, consisting of over 50 investigators focused on human microbiome research. Dirk received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Ghent University (UGent), Belgium, and completed postdoctoral training at UGent and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in bioinformatics, comparative and evolutionary genome analysis and microbial ecolog
Erick Pierstaff
Erick Pierstaff joined the NSF as Program Director in November 2019. Prior to NSF, he was Chief of Operations and led Research and Development at O-Ray Pharma, where he focused on integrating biology and biomedical engineering for the goal of drug development and sustained drug delivery for the treatment of hearing loss and other ear disorders. During his time working at early stage companies, he helped secure both Angel investment and non-dilutive funding in the form of licensing and co-development deals. Additionally, he served as Principal Investigator on several Phase I, II and IIB SBIR grants from the National Institutes of Health and NSF. His research interests have focused on the intersection of the biotic and abiotic, spanning molecular and cell biology, materials science, gene therapy, nanomaterials and drug delivery. Erik has a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.S. in Biology from Emory University.
Gokul Swaminathan
Gokul Swaminathan received his Ph.D. degree in microbiology & immunology from Drexel University. At Drexel, he uncovered the interplay between innate immune receptors, non-coding RNAs, HIV-1 infection. For his post-doctoral work, Dr. Swaminathan joined Merck Research Laboratories and trained at the vaccines division at Merck & Co. Inc, West Point, PA. After 2 years of post-doc work, he accepted a senior scientist position within the same group at Merck, West Point. While at Merck WP, Gokul was focused on uncovering the mode-of-action of novel lipid nanoparticle (LNP) based vaccine formulations in the context of viral infections and immuno-oncology. In 2016, Gokul transitioned into a new role at the new Merck Exploratory Science Center (ESC) in Cambridge, MA, where he is currently a principal scientist in the investigational biology group. At the Cambridge ESC, he leads innovative clinical & pre-clinical programs aimed at understanding the influence of the microbiome on the host immune system.
Matthew Henn
Matthew Henn is the Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Seres Therapeutics. He has over 20 years of combined research experience in microbial ecology, genomics and bioinformatics that spans both environmental and human disease applications. He has been involved in the discovery and clinical development of multiple microbiome therapeutics including all of Seres’ product candidates and has authored over 65 peer-reviewed publications. His research has focused on microbial physiology and the functional role of microbes in both environmental and human disease applications, and on the development of genomic and functional tools to study microbial systems. Prior to helping launch Seres in 2012, he was the Director of Viral Genomics and Assistant Director of the Genome Sequencing Center for Infectious Diseases at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He has served on various NIH working groups on antimicrobial resistance and microbiome research, as a scientific advisor for NIH’s Viral Pathogen Bioinformatics Resource Center, and as an ad-hoc reviewer and editor of various peer-reviewed journals. He currently serves on the scientific advisory board of Growcentia, Inc., an agricultural microbiome company. Dr. Henn earned his B.S. in ecology and evolutionary sciences from the University of New Hampshire and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a NASA Earth Systems Sciences Fellow, and trained as an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at Duke University.
Warren Flood
Ann Marie Conway
Scott Jackson
Daniel van der Lelie
Mark Plinio
Tonya Ward
Traci Kyes
Adam Didier
Yasha Talaga
Manoj Dadlani
Nadine Daou
Laurent Bouillaut
Brian Meehan
Bharat Dixit
Neil Schauer Ph.D
Daniel Menichella
Ryan Wilson
Jason Norman
Tami Lieberman
Tami Lieberman joined the MIT faculty in January 2018. She leads a computational and experimental research group focused on uncovering the principles governing colonization, niche range, and personalization in the human microbiome.
Tami trained in molecular biology and mathematics at Northwestern University, where she conducted research in the laboratory of Jon Widom and was funded by a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. She then earned a PhD in Systems Biology from Harvard University, where she conducted research in Roy Kishony’s laboratory. During her graduate research, Tami developed new genomic approaches for understanding how bacteria evolve during infections of individual people. As a postdoc in Eric Alm’s lab at MIT, she further developed and applied these genomic approaches to understand the microbes that colonize us during health. Tami has also made contributions to our understanding of antibiotic resistance, including the co-invention of a new platform for visualizing evolution in real time. Her work has been covered in the popular press, including online coverage from The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, The Boston Globe, and ArsTechnia.
Huiying Li
Larry Weiss
Greg Hillebrand
Barbara Paldus
Canadian-born of Czech parents, raised in both Europe and Canada, fluent in five languages with a Ph.D. from Stanford University (U.S.), Dr. Barbara Paldus considers herself a global citizen. As a scientist, she believes in data and biotechnology. Codex Beauty was conceived from a need to deliver high-efficacy, clinically proven skincare collections that defy the mainstream with plant-based biotech ingredients.
Barb is also an investor, entrepreneur, and inventor has been awarded 40 U.S. patents and numerous prizes in science. She spent two decades leading innovation in spectroscopy, telecommunications, and biotechnology. By 34, she had founded two Silicon Valley companies that, among many breakthroughs, paved the way for carbon cycle/natural gas pipeline monitoring (Picarro), and accessible vaccine/cancer therapeutic manufacturing (Finesse Solutions, acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2017). Today, several COVID-19 vaccines are manufactured in equipment that her company Finesse developed and brought to market.
Nicole Scott
Matthew Steele
Todd Krueger
Philippe Calais
Travis Whitfill
Travis Whitfill is an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Pediatrics. His background began in molecular biology and biochemistry, after receiving scientific training at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and Duke University. He is the co-founder of several additional startup companies, including a Connecticut-based microbiome company, Azitra Inc. He brings strong background in entrepreneurship and business, and is also a partner in a venture capital fund, Bios Partners, bringing experience in public markets, drug development, and venture capital investments.
His research interests are in pediatric emergency medicine and health policy and to improve pediatric acute care across the United States.
Søren Kjærulff
Rachel Behm
Steven Rosenfeld
Sarah De Szalay
Anahid Ugurlayan
Marcelo Freire
Jens Kreth
Purnima Kumar
Dr. Maria Ryan
Maria Emanuel Ryan, DDS, Ph.D. is Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at the Colgate-Palmolive Company where she provides oversight and leadership to dental and dermal clinical organizations, knowledge management, scientific communications, biosolutions, and methods development teams.
Dr. Ryan previously served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Oral Biology and Pathology at Stony Brook University where she was actively involved in teaching, clinical practice, and research.
She is the Past President of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR) and has served on many academic and foundation boards.
Dr. Ryan has received numerous awards including NIH National Research Service Awards and a Physician-Scientist Award. She was the recipient of the New Dentist Leadership Award from the Dental Society of the State of New York and received an achievement award from the American Dental Association. Dr. Ryan was the first recipient of the Victress Health Award which she received in Berlin, Germany in 2010 to recognize her educational and research efforts in the area of women’s health.
Dr. Ryan is a Distinguished Alumnus of Stony Brook’s School of Dental Medicine and was a Fellow of the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women at Drexel University College of Medicine.
Dr. Ryan is a nationally and internationally known speaker and author who has appeared on multiple media outlets to discuss the role of the dental professional in the provision of optimal overall health care.
Ana Duran-Pinedo
Dana Graves
Mircea Podar
George Chen
Katrine Whiteson (VIRTUAL)
Yvonne Kapila
Yvonne Kapila is a clinician-scientist with over 20 years of experience studying the basic mechanisms and translational and clinical aspects of periodontal disease pathogenesis and head and neck cancer carcinogenesis using in vitro and in vivo models and human clinical studies.
Her early research focused on understanding the basic extracellular matrix (ECM) processes and host-microbial mechanisms that govern head and neck cancer tumorigenesis and periodontal disease pathogenesis.
Kapila made important discoveries focused on the cell and molecular biology mechanisms that regulate anoikis; programmed cell death or apoptosis triggered by the loss of extracellular matrix contacts.
Kapila's recent research has extended to omics approaches and biomarker discovery for head and neck cancer using metabolomics and microbiome approaches.
Her related work in sirtuin biology and oral cancer were seminal in showing that sirtuin 3, a metabolic enzyme, regulates and promotes oral cancer tumorigenesis.
Recently funded projects in her lab have focused on host-microbial interactions and the novel role of bacteriocins in biomedical applications, including as modulators of tumorigenesis and disease-associated biofilms and the oral microbiome.
Jorge Frias-Lopez
Braden Tierney
Gill Diamond
Maria Dzunkova
Nezar Al-hebshi
Brian Klein
LaTonya Kilpatrick
LaTonya Kilpatrick-Liverman leads the Early Research Oral Care, Devices, and Clinical Methods group at Colgate Palmolive Co. She and her Team are responsible for exploring current and emerging technologies in biological and related interdisciplinary sciences to assess wellness states and develop targeted and personalized solutions to improve overall health. Her Team is also responsible for developing advanced therapies and devices to prevent disease and improve and monitor health.
LaTonya has over 30 years of experience conducting research in skin and oral biology. She is the author of several patents, book chapters, and journal articles, and has served on the Editorial Advisory Board of the International Journal of Cosmetic Science, the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Industrial Advisory Board at Rutgers University, and on the Biomaterials Symposium Advisory Board at Rutgers University.
LaTonya has volunteered in a number of education based outreach programs sponsored by Colgate Palmolive, the American Chemical Society, and various community groups. She finds joy leveraging every opportunity to give back and share her experiences.
LaTonya joined the Colgate Piscataway GTC in 1992. She holds a BA degree in Chemistry from Hampton University and a PhD degree in Chemistry from Princeton University.
Mark Burhenne
Flavia Teles
Dr. Robert Burne (VIRTUAL)
Robert A. Burne earned his Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the Pennsylvania State University and his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Rochester (UR).
After a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship, he served for 10 years on the faculty of UR’s School of Medicine and Dentistry. He moved to the University of Florida College of Dentistry (UFCD) in 2001, where he served as Chair of the Department of Oral Biology for 18 years and as Program Director of UFCD’s NIDCR-funded Comprehensive Training Program in Oral Biology for over 12 years.
He is presently a Distinguished Professor of the Department of Oral Biology, after stepping down from his 10-year role as the Associate Dean for Research in 2020, and the Louis and Marge Atkins Endowed Professor.
Dr. Burne’s research is aimed at dissecting molecular mechanisms governing the ability of bacteria that colonize the human oral cavity to modulate gene expression in response to environmental inputs.
He is internationally recognized for his work with Streptococcus mutans and other oral streptococci; making seminal contributions to understanding the regulation of carbohydrate metabolism, stress tolerance, and intercellular communication by oral streptococci.
He has published ~200 peer-reviewed articles on these topics, as well as on the genetics, physiology, and ecology of oral biofilms, and on novel probiotic mechanisms used by beneficial bacteria to promote health in the oral microbiome.
Over 150 students, postdoctoral fellows, clinician-scientists, and international fellows have received training in his laboratory. He received the IADR Gies and IADR Hatton Awards as a Ph.D. student and the IADR’s Distinguished Scientist Award for Research in Dental Caries in 2009. Dr. Burne is currently a Fellow and Member-at-Large of the AAAS.
Alex Mira (VIRTUAL)
Alex Mira obtained an honour distinction for his BSc in Biology at the University of Alicante, Spain, in 1994. He then obtained a British Council scholarship to do a Master of Science degree at Oxford University (UK) and was the first Spanish student to be awarded a Rhodes scholarship, which allowed him to do his doctorate at Oxford on bacterial genetics, which he finished in 1999.
He then was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to carry out post-doctoral research in the USA in the field of bacterial genomics for 2 and a half years, and a second post-doc at Uppsala University (Sweden) working on microarray technology and bioinformatics.
After 9 years abroad, he returned to Spain with the Ramón y Cajal repatriation program in 2003 and initiated his own research group working on the genomics and metagenomics of oral bacteria.
In 2009, he was awarded the “Jaime Ferran” National Award for Research in Microbiology and he is currently the principal investigator of the Oral Microbiome Laboratory at the CSISP, in Spain, where he has applied metagenomics and next-generation sequencing technology to the study of dental caries, discovering the presence of bacteria which prevent the formation of cavities, as well as to the study of bacteria from breast milk, saliva, and the respiratory tract.
Danny Grannick
John Haran
Dr. John Haran is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Microbiology & Physiological Systems at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester Massachusetts. He is also Clinical director for the Center for Microbiome Research and member of the Program in Microbiome Dynamics at UMass Chan. He graduated from UMass Medical School in 2007 and completed Residency training at Brown University in 2011. He has been at UMass Chan since then, completing his PhD training in Biomedical Sciences in 2018.
Dr. Haran’s research background has focused on investigations into older adult health and associations with microbiome composition and health outcomes in both nursing home and community-dwelling elders. His earlier work had focused on the microbiome and how dysbiosis can lead to increased risk of bacterial colonization and infection.
Dr. Haran’s current National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer’s Association funding focuses on the oral and gut microbiomes and the roles they play in the “microbiome-brain axis”. He has published findings demonstrating that the intestinal microbiome of elders with Alzheimer’s disease have a pro-inflammatory dysbiotic pattern that can induce disruption of the intestinal epithelium homeostasis in in vitro models. His current work enrolls and follows older adults, collecting longitudinal cognitive data and microbiome data by whole genome sequencing exploring the hypothesis that the microbiome is the driver of immune system dysfunction leading to neurocognitive decline.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic Dr. Haran has been involved in multiple federal and privately funded projects investigating different aspects of this disease. His clinical trial work focused on vaccine, monoclonal antibody, and antiviral trials to prevent or treat COVID-19. He is a leading site in the CDC’s vaccine efficacy surveillance network. His most recent published work describes how an individual’s oral microbiome composition during early infection can predict which patients go on to develop long-COVID.
Bradley Evan
Dr Bradley emergency physician and clinical scientist with a focus on the interaction the microbiome and infectious diseases with the goal is of utilizing cutting edge technologies to address relevant clinical questions that have the highest impact for changing current clinical practice. He is currently engaged in a study of the urinary microbiome to understand microbiome factors that are associated with pathogen colonization and factors that differentiate colonization from active infection.
Recently his work has shifted to focus on COVID19 with funding through the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. The oral microbiome is hypothesized to influence respiratory health, including how the immune system responds to respiratory viral infection such as influenza and the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of the pandemic Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). In ongoing projects, he is investigating the association between the oral microbiome and acute COVID19 as well as the development of persistent symptoms, known as longCOVID.
2021 Event Partners
Colagate
Website: https://www.colgate.com/en-us
Colgate-Palmolive Company is a caring, innovative growth company reimagining a healthier future for all people, their pets and our planet. Focused on Oral Care, Personal Care, Home Care and Pet Nutrition, the Company sells its products in more than 200 countries and territories under brands such as Colgate, Palmolive, elmex, hello, meridol, Sorriso, Tom’s of Maine, EltaMD, Filorga, Irish Spring, PCA Skin, Protex, Sanex, Softsoap, Speed Stick, Ajax, Axion, Fabuloso, Soupline and Suavitel, as well as Hill’s Science Diet and Hill’s Prescription Diet. The Company is recognized for its leadership and innovation in promoting environmental sustainability and community well-being, including its achievements in saving water, reducing waste, promoting recyclability and improving children’s oral health through its Bright Smiles, Bright Futures program, which has reached more than 1.3 billion children since 1991. For more information about Colgate’s global business and how the Company is building a future to smile about, visit www.colgate-palmolive.com. CL-D
Bacthera
Website: https://www.bacthera.com/
Bacthera is a Danish/Swiss-based one-stop CDMO in the field of LBP’s, with the overall goal to enable the entire industry to further flourish by introducing industry changing innovations.
From small start-up’s to globally operating pharmaceutical companies, we support our clients developing analytical and manufacturing processes of their strains. With our long experience in handling bacteria in DS and DP production, we can offer tailor-made development and large-scale commercial solutions. Within our facilities, we can handle:
- Strictly and facultative anaerobes
- BSL1/2 categorized strains
- GMO’s
Our customers benefit from background technologies and GMP manufacturing know-how that originate from our mother companies Chr. Hansen & Lonza. In addition, Bacthera’s process expertise, enabling innovations and our world-class analytical services will contribute to our customer’s successful development of their LBP.
Diversigen
Website: https://diversigen.com/
Diversigen – Your Expert Source of Reliable Microbiome/Metagenomics Services and Insights
Leverage Diversigen’s CLIA/CAP-accredited microbiome profiling/bioinformatics services across the entire clinical research project lifecycle:
- Quality Leadership - Proven expertise, CLIA/CAP accredited
- Experienced - Pre-clinical studies, large clinical trials to single individual analysis
- Consultative/customized study support
- Breadth of services -16S/metagenomics (WGS)/qPCR development
- Flexible, agnostic bio-informatic pipelines/combined bio-statistical analysis
For more information, visit www.diversigen.com
Biose Industrie
Website: https://www.biose.com/
Biose Industrie is a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO), specialised in Live Biotherapeutic Products. Founded in 1951, Biose Industrie has more than 65 years of experience in the development and production of live bacteria based drugs. Company offers lab development specialised in microbiology (anaerobic, aerobic, GMO strains) and is Drug GMP certified for the manufacturing of API (From 300L to 3 500L), clinical batches and commercial drug products (capsules in blisters or pills, sachets).
ReciBioPharm
Website: https://www.recipharm.com/about-us/bolstering-biologics
Please visit our website for more information.Clinical Microbiomics
Website: www.clinical-microbiomics.com
Our inner ecology – that delicate microbial ecosystem known as the microbiome – is the new frontier in human health. At Clinical Microbiomics, we exist to untangle its complexity in search of mechanisms that impact health and disease.
Identifying and understanding those mechanisms is like looking for a needle in a haystack and demands a truly interdisciplinary approach to microbiome science. Innovating at the forefront of the field, our team of leading scientists creates breakthrough bioinformatics tools and analytical concepts that set new standards for understanding and influencing the microbiome.
Clinical Microbiomics is proud to partner with researchers from the world’s most prominent academic institutions and leading biotech, consumer health and pharma companies. Operating as an extension of their research organizations, we work broader, analyze deeper, and connect the dots to help find the answers needed to impact health and disease.
Quay Pharma
Website: https://www.quaypharma.com
Quay are world known experts in formulation development and clinical manufacturing of live biotherapeutic dosage forms.
No other CDMO has the breadth of knowledge in the formulation services we offer, our clinical trials manufacturing and supply know how as well as our specialist knowledge in providing cost efficient engineering solutions to meet the many challenges that we know can accompany the finished product manufacture of microbial therapies.
Twenty years of focused know how on formulation and analytical development to meet the demands of global regulatory authorities at all clinical phases, has established Quay Pharma as a leading innovator in the fast growing microbial therapies space. We work with bacteria including fastidious anaerobes, multi-species consortia, viruses including bacteriophages and viral vectors and microbially derived drug products such as recombinant peptides and spores. This diversity requires a broad range of expertise, analytical techniques, operational flexibility and handling requirements to ensure safe and efficacious manufacture specifically during manufacturing scaleup for clinical supply.
We are fully licensed for handling BS class 1 and 2 strains as well genetically modified microorganisms. Quay is able to support your GMP manufacture in Europe and is extending this capability to its new facility in the US.
Unlike other CDMO’s Quay offers a specific formulation route that meets your target profile requirements. We know, from experience, that off the shelf solutions, such as intrinsically enteric capsules do not always work and certainly can not provide the protection to your therapeutics potency that other formulation options do.
Get in touch, we look forward to discussing a bespoke solution to meet your therapeutic needs.
Metabolon
Metabolon deciphers thousands of discrete chemical signals from genetic and non-genetic factors to reveal biological pathways. We make connections where other ‘omics cannot, and provide the definitive representation of the phenotype.
Our work measures inputs from internal and external factors such as health, disease, nutrition, microbiome, medication, pollution, and more, to drive success in answering scientific questions about health and disease.
Every day, we accelerate research that leads to successes in biopharma, population health, consumer products, agriculture, wellness, and academic and government research sectors. This work has enabled modern science to gain a foothold in our understanding of complex disease, ultimately leading to the creation of new treatments that impact individuals and communities globally. Our scalable, customizable metabolomics solutions provide support across the research continuum from discovery through clinical trials, to in-market life cycle management.
Millipore Sigma
Website: https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/US/en/products/molecular-biology-and-functional-genomics/microbiome
We are Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany the vibrant science and technology company. Science is at the heart of everything we do, it drives the discoveries we make and the technologies we create.
Our products and services help you safely and efficiently develop and manufacture any therapies. We support everything from biologics to cell and gene therapies.
The latest offering is our microbiome platform. We offer microbiome products as well as one stop solution for microbiome multi-omics services: Metagenomics and Metabolomics services.
Our offering of microbiome workflow products and microbiome multi-omic services support researchers and therapy innovators in their pursuit to understand the microbiome. Our metagenomics services include Amplicon Sequencing (16S,18S, ITS) and Shotgun (WGS). Our metabolomics services include detection of Short chain fatty acids (SCFA), Bile acids and Amino acids (AA). Our unique M-CAMPTM cloud-based bioinformatic interactive platform provides users with an easy-to-use web interface to perform bioinformatic analysis on microbiome samples and download publication-ready graphics and reports.
LabSkin
Website: https://www.labskin.co.uk/
Labskin is a world-leading platform that has been producing lab-grown human skin for 15 years and using it to test cosmetic and skin health products for the world’s leading brands. Labskin is the only commercially available full thickness human skin model that naturally mimics the skin's microbiome.
In 2021, we launched Skin Trust Club which combined our deep science knowledge with our AI expertise in solving an unmet consumer need. Skin Trust Clun is a skin health tracking app that provides personalised skin care suggestions based on testing your unique skin microbiome.
CosmosID
Website: www.cosmosid.com
CosmosID® provides end-to-end solutions unlocking the microbiome. A provider of CLIA-certified & ICH-GCP compliant NGS Services and Bioinformatics Solutions, CosmosID offers a range of validated and optimized workflows for research and development.
CosmosID also offers independently validated, industry-leading pipelines for processing metagenomic data, yielding multi-kingdom, strain-level resolution with leading sensitivity and precision. Results can be accessed via CosmosID-HUB, a user-friendly and interactive software for comparative analysis of microbiome data, complete with dynamic charts, visualizations, and statistics.
Bristle
Bristle is a direct-to-consumer at-home oral health company. Bristle offers an at-home saliva test that analyzes the oral microbiome to assess a user's oral health status, then provides personalized coaching and recommendations to improve their health.
For more information, visit bristlehealth.com
Atlantia Clinical Trials
Website: https://atlantiaclinicaltrials.com/
Please visit our website for more information.B&D Nutritional Ingredients
Website: https://www.bdnutritional.com/
Please visit our website for more information.Microba
Website: https://microba.com/
Microba is a global microbiome company including a precision microbiome analysis service division leveraging superior sampling method, high-throughput sequencing, best-in-class profiler, and the most comprehensive genome reference database.
Combined with advanced analytics, AI expertise and biological knowledge, Microba offers end-to-end research support with robust microbiome analysis and data interpretation, enabling therapeutic, diagnostic discoveries and exploratory microbiome monitoring. Using its platform, Microba’s ongoing population study also provides the largest catalogue of metagenome and associated metadata for data mining, and microbiome associations discovery.
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