Microbiome Webinar Series

Session 4 - Microbiome & Cancer Therapy            April 30, 2015 11:00am EDT           Click Here for Recording

The microbiome consists of bacteria, archaea, fungi, eukaryotes and viruses which outnumber host cells ten to one and host genes >100 times. Several bacteria are associated with chronic inflammation and subsequent increased risk of cancer, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis (lung cancer) and Fusobacterium nucleatum (colon cancer) , a bacterium commonly isolated from inflammatory bowel disease patients and a risk factor for colon cancer. The more virulent strains of F. nucleatum affect colon cancer progression. The elucidation of the microbiota important in the initiation and progression of cancer is an important next step in identifying new biomarkers for early diagnosis and treatment.

Session 3 - Spatially Explicit Maps             April 23, 2015 11:00am EDT              Click Here for Recordings

Session 2 - Roundup of the News         April 16, 2015 11:00am EDT         Click Here for Recordings

Emerging research on the microbiome is suggesting profound impacts such as indications that the mother’s biota affect the physiology and response to certain stresses in babies. Studies such as this reflect the growth of research on the microbiomes’ affects, not just their compositions.

An overview of current thinking on the human microbiota (the microbes living in and on our body) and how they have a significant impact on health in a good way, and also their negative aspects as well.

Dr. Kuo will touch upon specific disease areas, as well as synergies between the microbiome, nutrition, metabolism, and interactions with the immune system. A focus will be upon moving microbiome research into human populations, which will set the stage for folllow-on webinars in the series.

Session 1 - The Systems Biology Approach          April 9, 2015 11:00am EDT         Click Here for Recording

A reductionist approach may enable research by helping to focus on the smallest constituents of a biological mystery. However, considering the entire biological system provides insight that can be missed while delving into the “weeds”.

Discussants will explore new understandings of the ways that metabolites can be altered and released into the host to affect cardiac health, brain function, etc. In addition, fresh questions made relevant through new methodological approaches will be addressed.

Introduction to the Microbiome             December 4, 2014          Click Here for Recording

In this webinar, our experts highlighted recent efforts involving knowledge developed from study of the preterm infant, a clean slate upon which a healthy microbiome is developed;  the impact for oral health as we mature; & an industry perspective as it relates to research tools and resources.

Romina Goldszmid received her Ph.D. from the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. She conducted her postdoctoral research in the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. She then joined the Laboratory of Experimental Immunology as a Staff Scientist. She is now an NIH Earl Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigator in CCR’s Laboratory of Experimental Immunology. Her research focuses on linking the microbiome, mononuclear phagocyte development, and cancer and infectious disease.

Dr. Leigh Greathouse is a registered dietician and currently a research fellow in the Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis, and a former fellow in the Cancer Prevention Program at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD.  Her current research includes the mechanisms of obesity-related cancer and the host-microbiome relationship in cancer and inflammation. Dr. Greathouse received her M.S. from Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX (2001), M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD (2011), and Ph.D. from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and University of Texas, Houston, TX (2010) in Molecular Carcinogenesis.

Rob Knight is Professor of Pediatrics and Computer Science & Engineering, and Director of the Microbiome Initiative, at the University of California, San Diego. He is the co-founder of the Earth Microbiome Project and the American Gut Project, and co-founder and CSO of Biota, Inc. Dr. Knight has co-authored more than 300 peer-reviewed research articles, and has been cited more than 41,000 times with an h-index of 86 according to Google Scholar.  

His research includes the development of highly multiplexed techniques for reading out the human microbiome and the microbial communities in environmental samples, software for analyzing microbial communities including the popular QIIME and UniFrac packages, and high-throughput genome analysis. He has applied these tools to uncovering links between microbes and obesity, malnutrition, inflammatory bowel disease, and diabetes.

He is a Senior Editor at ISME J, on the editorial board of Cell Host & Microbe, Genome Research, Genome Biology, and several other journals, is a Kavli Fellow, AAAS Fellow, AAM Fellow, was an HHMI Early Career Scientist, and was awarded the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise. He has spoken at TED, the World Economic Forum, and Sci-Foo, as well as several dozen scientific conferences each year. He received his PhD from Princeton University in 2001, and was at the University of Colorado Boulder from 2001-2014.

Dr. Winston Kuo is the founder of Harvard Medical School’s Laboratory for Innovative Translational Technologies, which was an integral part of the Clinical and Translational Science Award program, Dr. Kuo has founded and supported many programs that spur biomedical research.

He initiated and participated with the FDA in a large-scale comprehensive study evaluating the clinical utility of gene expression technologies, published in Nature Biotechnology (July 2006). He sits on the NIH/SBIR grant review study section and is a peer reviewer for the Qatar National Research Fund.

Dr. Kuo's clinical and translational initiatives have expanded globally in developing countries such as Brazil, China, Mongolia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and South Africa, focusing upon accelerating understanding of mechanisms that affect human disease; catalyzing the identification and development of useful biomarkers; and speeding the development of therapeutics in patients. Dr. Kuo has also instructed in the Innovation for Economic Development program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Dr. Kuo is a founder and Trustee of the Otto Heinrich Warburg Cancer Research Foundation.

He sits on the editorial boards of multiple peer reviewed journals, and is Editor-in Chief of the Journal of Circulating Biomarkers and NanoBioMedicine (both of which he founded). He has consulted with the NIH on interdisciplinary outreach, and sits on a number business and nonprofit Scientific Advisory Boards, including the BioPharma Research Council.

He received is Doctor of Medical Sciences (DMSc), Oral and Computational Biology from Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Camilia Martin’s research interests are focused in neonatal nutrition and its impact on health and disease in the preterm infant. She has participated in multi-site clinical trials serving as the Principal Investigator at BIDMC, evaluating growth and long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes in the extremely preterm infant.

In 2009, Dr. Martin received a Harvard Catalyst Faculty Fellowship Award facilitating her transition from general epidemiology to translational research. Her current research focus is on fat and fatty acid metabolism, postnatal intestinal adaptation including the microbiome, development of immune defenses, and regulation of the inflammation. In September 2014, Dr. Martin was awarded an R01 grant from NIDDK to examine the “Impact of fatty acid imbalance in intestinal health and disease in prematurity”.

Dr. Martin received her M.D. from Cornell University School of Medicine in 1992 and completed her internship and residency at Children’s Memorial Hospital/Northwestern School of Medicine in 1995 where she also served as Chief Pediatric Resident in 1996. Dr. Martin completed her fellowship in Perinatal-Neonatal Medicine at the Harvard Combined Program in Neonatology in 1999. During her fellowship training, she completed a Masters in Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health in 1998.

In addition to her role at the Harvard Medical School, she is Associate Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the Director for Cross-Disciplinary Research Partnerships, Division of Translational Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC)

Dr. Howard Young received his PhD from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Washington and did postdoctoral research under Drs. Edward Scolnick and Wade Parks at the National Cancer Institute.  He joined the National Cancer Institute in 1983 and became Deputy Chief of the NCI Laboratory of Experimental Immunology in 2006.

His research has focused on the analysis of cytokine gene expression and signaling with a special emphasis on the molecular characterization of the transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation regulation of Interferon-g in NK cells.  

Most recently, his laboratory has developed novel mouse models of lupus and aplastic anemia based on chronic expression of low levels of this important immunoregulatory molecule in the murine C57BL/6 genetic background and the Balb/c genetic background, respectively. He is also collaborating with a laboratory in Malaysia on the development of probiotic microorganisms as carriers for vaccine delivery systems.  

Dr. Young is a former President of the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research and is a co-recipient (with Dr. Sidney Pestka) of the first Distinguished Service Award from the ISICR, is a two time recipient of the National Cancer Institute Director’s Award for Mentoring and is a recipient of the National Public Service Award from the American Society for Public Administration and the National Academy of Public Administration.  

He has also served as Chair of the Immunology Division of the American Society for Microbiology, Chair of the NIH Immunology Interest Group and Cytokine Interest Group and is a member of the American Academy of Microbiology.