Josh Goldin
David Beno
Ava Firth
Ava is a veterinarian and board-certified specialist in veterinary emergency and critical care. Originally from Ohio, USA, she has held both private practice and university positions in the USA, Australia and the United Kingdom, specialising in small animal emergencies and lecturing internationally.
Her interest in critical care nutrition, particularly microenteral nutrition, led to her position as Director of Research and Development for Tonisity. She is responsible for designing and coordinating research and trials, as well as managing the product development pipeline and regulatory affairs.
Tim McAllister
Dr. Tim McAllister grew up on his parents’ cow/calf farm in Innisfail, AB. He obtained a B.Sc. (Agr) and M.Sc. from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and a Ph.D. (with distinction) in ruminant nutrition and microbiology from the University of Guelph, ON. He accepted an NSERC post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Calgary in 1991, and joined Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge, AB in 1992. Dr. McAllister has been a research scientist in Rumen Microbiology, Feed and Nutrition since 1997. His research focuses on microbiology, nutrition and beef production and on food and environmental safety issues related to livestock production, strategies for mitigation of Escherichia coli O157:H7, prion inactivation within the environment, and more recently, studies of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria in feedlots. He also has extensive research experience in GHG emissions within animals from manure and the impact of manure handling procedures, such as composting, on emissions. Dr. McAllister has conducted research to examine microbiological and nutritional approaches for mitigating ruminal methanogenesis, and emission of nitrous oxide and methane during composting, using strategies including the use of plant extracts, methanogen inhibitors and dietary formulations to limit methane production. He is the author or co-author of over 520 peer-reviewed scientific papers and 60 reviews, as well as 800 abstracts and conference proceedings, and over 100 final reports for collaborative research projects. Dr. McAllister has been recognized internationally for his leadership role and significant contributions to agricultural research and innovation in the areas of ruminant nutrition/microbiology and molecular biology as they apply to animal health, environmental health and food quality for the benefit of the agricultural industry in Alberta, Canada, and beyond.
Steve Kazemi
Steve brings 20-years of manufacturing and operations management experience to the team. Steve founded Pure Cultures because he believes in the “wonder bugs” or probiotics and the benefits they bring to our society. Steve is often called upon as a consultant for struggling companies with their quality systems.
Brian Oakley
I am a microbial ecologist interested in tackling important problems at the interface of basic and applied research. The revolution in high-throughput DNA sequencing has conclusively demonstrated the importance of microbial communities for life on earth. Microbial ecology cuts across many fields and I have applied the tools and techniques of microbial ecology to disciplines ranging from oceanography to human and animal health. My graduate training combined classical and microbial ecology but I only considered myself a microbiologist after working in the Microbiology Department of the University of Washington, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and the University of Warwick. Four years as a research microbiologist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service gave me first-hand knowledge of the poultry industry and a chance to apply the tools and techniques of microbial ecology to veterinary microbiology. Most of the current focus of my research is on the poultry microbiome and its relationships to food safety, infectious disease, and poultry nutrition. Our standard toolkit combines field work with classical microbiology, microscopy, quantitative PCR, high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing, metagenomics, and associated bioinformatics. We are currently funded through several intramural mechanisms, extramural grants, and industry partnerships.
Jiangcho Zhao
My lab focuses on the roles that human and animal microbiome play in health and different diseases. We use interdisciplinary approaches such as multi-omics (e.g. metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metabolomics), bioinformatics, statistics, big data and mixed culture to, for example:
Characterize and engineer gastrointestinal microbiome to promote human healthy aging, increase animal nutrient utilization and efficiency, production and well-being;
Identify and apply prebiotics and probiotics to increase human and animal health and reduce antibiotics use;
Study the ecology and evolution of human and animal microbiome;
Identify airway microbiome biomarkers in human and animal respiratory diseases such as cystic fibrosis, COPD and Bovine Respiratory Disease for early and targeted therapy.
