The 91Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ Centre for Microbiome Research leadership thanks the External Advisory Board members for their commitment to our research initiative. We are grateful for the opportunity to share expertise and experiences with esteemed local and international colleagues to foster innovation in microbiome research for the benefit of the scientific community and populations.
Dr Elena Verdu, McMaster University
Elena Verdu obtained a medical degree in Argentina and then pursued a Ph.D. degree in immunology and gnotobiology at the Czech Academy of Science on the effect of commensal bacterial antigens in inflammatory bowel disease and celiac disease. In 2006 Dr. Verdu was appointed faculty at McMaster University, where she developed a program to investigate dietary-microbial-host interactions in gastroenterology. Her research aims at deciphering commensal and opportunistic pathogen metabolism of dietary antigens and how that process affects their inflammatory capacity in the host. She is director of the Axenic and Gnotobiotic facility, Associate Director of the Farncombe Institute at McMaster, and Senior Associate Editor (basic Science) for the journal Gastroenterology. Currently she holds the rank of full professor and a Tier Canada Research Chair in Microbial Therapeutics and Nutrition in Gastroenterology.
Prof. Tami Lieberman, MIT
Prof. Tami Lieberman is an Associate Professor at MIT, where she is jointly appointed in the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Prof. Lieberman completed her PhD in Systems Biology from Harvard University in Roy Kishony’s laboratory. As a postdoc in Eric Alm’s laboratory at MIT, she discovered the first evidence that bacteria in the gut microbiome acquire adaptive point mutations during health. She is a recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. The Lieberman Lab develops computational and experimental techniques to understand how commensal bacteria evolve on the skin of individual people and across the globe. Microbial-based therapies remain difficult to design, and we cannot predict which strains will stably colonize an individual. Dr. Lieberman’s group seeks to close this knowledge gap and develop mechanistic understanding of how strains behave in human microbiomes—including selective pressures they face, their niche ranges and survival strategies, and the degree to which they adapt within individual microbiomes.
Dr Trevor Lawley, Wellcome Sanger Institute
Dr Trevor Lawley is a Faculty member and Senior Group Leader of the Host-Microbiota Interactions Lab at the Wellcome Sanger Institute (WSI) and the co-founding Chief Scientific Officer of the clinical-stage biotechnology company Microbiotica. Trevor’s work has pioneered concepts, analytical tools and methodologies that, through data- and hypothesis-driven approaches, leading to foundational discoveries and enabling translation of medicines and diagnostics from the human microbiome. The HMIL has trained scientists who have established independent academic research labs and are emerging microbiome science leaders in the biotechnology sector. Trevor is Chair of the Sanger International Fellows programme focused on empowering early career scientists from Low- and Middle-Income through access to cutting-edge genomic technologies, mentorship and training. The papers, methods and genomic resources generated by HMIL are publicly available to democratise access and amplify research impact. In 2016, Trevor spun out, built and led the biotech company Microbiotica to develop Live Biotherapeutic Products (LBPs), biomarkers and microbiome-based technologies focused on autoimmune diseases and cancers.
Prof. David Berry, University of Vienna
David Berry is a Full Professor at the University of Vienna, where he is a member of the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science and the Division of Microbial Ecology. He received a PhD in Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan for his characterization of the bacterial stress response to drinking water disinfectants. Then as a postdoc at the University of Vienna he studied the role of the gut microbiota in acute intestinal inflammation and pioneered an approach for in situ identification and visualization of bacterial cells that degrade secreted host proteins. He is an ERC grant recipient and founding Operational Director of the Joint Microbiome Facility of the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Vienna. Research in Prof. Berry’s lab focuses on the function of the intestinal microbiota in health and disease, including nutrition, inflammation, bacterial-mucosal interactions, cancer, and neurodevelopment. In addition, the lab develops computational approaches as well as isotope-based and single-cell methods for studying uncultivated microorganisms in their natural environment.