Dr. Jacques Ravel is the Associate Director for Genomics at the Institute for Genome Sciences and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Maryland. His work highlights the role of the vaginal microbiome in protecting against infection—authoring over 225 publications and attracting over $30 million in grants with continuous NIH funding since 2005. His work is also part of the NIH-funded Human Microbiome Project.

Dr. Gregor Reid specializes in novel applications of microbes for human and environmental health. He chaired the UN/WHO Expert Panel on Probiotics that authored the globally accepted definition of ‘probiotics’. Before his current role as the Director of the Canadian R&D Centre for Human Microbiome and Probiotics, he served as President of the International Scientific Association of Probiotics and Prebiotics. He has authored over 520 papers, been cited over 27,000 times, and received 28 patents.

Dr. George M. Church is a geneticist, molecular engineer, chemist, and the Co-Director of SeedLabs. He is currently the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and MIT. He has co-authored 453 papers, 105 patent publications, and one book. He was listed as one Time Magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People’ in 2017 and is well-known for his work on the woolly mammoth genome.

Dr. James Versalovic currently serves as Co-Chair of the International Human Microbiome Consortium, Vice Chair of Pathology + Immunology at Baylor College of Medicine, and Pathologist-In-Chief at Texas Children’s Hospital and Director of Texas Children’s Microbiome Center. He has authored more than 135 primary manuscripts, 34 book chapters, and his research has been supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America.

Dr. Sarkis Mazmanian is the Soux Professor of Microbiology and an Investigator at the Heritage Medical Research Institute at Caltech. He is the founder of Axial Biotherapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company harnessing the gut-brain axis to develop novel Central Nervous System (CNS) therapeutics. He was also named one of the “Best Brains in Science under 40” by Discover Magazine, and a “Life Science Superstar” by Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

Dr. Azza Gadir is a molecular immunologist with experience in the field of immune tolerance. She completed her postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School (Boston Childrens' Hospital) and for this research, holds issued and pending patents and has collaborated with industry partners to accelerate the discovery of microbiome-related immunotherapies for food allergy. Dr. Gadir previously served as Director of Research and Development at Seed Health.

Dr. Janet Jansson has over 30 years of expertise studying the complex microbial communities of soils, sediments, and the human gut. Of note, her sequencing studies have illustrated the critical role soil microbes play in breaking down pollutants. She is currently Chief Biology Scientist for the Earth and Environmental Sciences Directorate, Laboratory Fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and the leader of the Microbiomes in Transition Initiative at PNNL.

Dr. Martin J. Blaser holds the Henry Rutgers Chair of the Human Microbiome at Rutgers University, where he is also a Professor of Medicine and Microbiology and Director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine. For over 30 years, he has observed the role of bacteria in human disease and is the author of over 500 original scientific papers, holds 28 U.S. patents relating to his research, and wrote the book Missing Microbes (available in over 20 languages).

Dr. Mayer is a Distinguished Professor at UCLA’s school of Medicine, Executive Director of the G. Oppenheimer Center and Founding Director of the UCLA Brain Gut Microbiome Center. He has 35 years of experience studying clinical and neurobiological aspects of how digestive and the nervous systems interact. He’s published over 370 peer reviewed articles, including 100 chapters and reviews, and co-edited four books.

Dr. Joe Petrosino is the Director of the Alkek Center for Metagenomics and Microbiome Research as well as an Associate Professor of Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine. In addition to authoring over 40 papers, he is the Founder and President of Diversigen Inc., providing solutions for sequencing, analysis, and consulting services geared toward the study of the microbiome—propelling serious research into this field forward.

Dr. Christopher Mason develops and deploys computational and experimental methodologies to identify the functional genetic elements of the human genome and metagenome. He is a Professor of Physiology, Biophysics, and Genomics at Weill Cornell Medicine and Director of the WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction. Dr. Mason is also a Director at Tempus Labs, co-Founder and Director at Biotia, and co-Founder and Director at Onegevity Health.

Dr. Peter J. Turnbaugh is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology, the G.W. Hooper Research Foundation, and the Benioff Center for Microbiome Medicine at UCSF. His research focuses on the metabolic activities of microbes that colonize our bodies. He uses interdisciplinary preclinical models and human cohorts to study the mechanisms through which the gut microbiome influences nutrition and pharmacology.

Dr. Belinda Tan is a practicing board-certified dermatologist and dermatopathologist, currently serving as a Dermatopathology Section Advisor at VisualDx, whose image-based medical decision support tool improves patient outcomes and healthcare costs through clinical accuracy. She is also a founding team member and Senior Advisor of a leading teledermatology company, DirectDerm, which has improved specialty care access to underserved communities.

Dr. Shruti Naik is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology, Department of Medicine and Department of Dermatology at New York University School of Medicine. Her laboratory studies the dynamic interactions between immune cells, epithelial cells, and microbes in barrier tissues that interface with the environment. Her work on how these interactions can be used to prevent disease has opened the door for microbiota-based skin therapies.

Dr. Jan Claesen is an Assistant Professor of Molecular Medicine at Case Western Reserve University and an Assistant Staff faculty member at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute. The Claesen lab works to understand the molecular mechanisms that drive community dynamics and microbe-host interactions in the human gut and skin microbiome. Additionally, his lab engineers commensal bacteria for fundamental and translational applications.

Jeff F. Miller, Ph.D., is the Fred Kavli Chair in NanoSystems Sciences, Director of the California NanoSystems Institute, and Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at UCLA. His laboratory focuses on molecular mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis, the evolution of functional diversity in bacteria and phage, and bio-inspired engineering of precision antibiotics.

Dr. Modlin has been at UCLA since 1990, presently as the Klein Professor of Dermatology, Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, Chief of the Division of Dermatology and Vice Chair for cutaneous medicine and dermatologic research in the Department of Medicine. The research in the Modlin lab is centered on the study of leprosy and tuberculosis as models to learn about mechanisms of host defense in humans.

Dr. Nikolaos Donos is the Professor and Chair of Periodontology and Implant Dentistry, the Director of Clinical Research, Head of the Centre for Oral Clinical Research, and Lead for the Centre of Oral Immunobiology and Regenerative Medicine at the Institute of Dentistry, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London. His clinical work provides advanced treatment modalities to patients with severe periodontal disease.

Dr. Nini C. Tran is an Assistant Professor in the Section of Pediatric Dentistry at UCLA School of Dentistry and a Diplomat of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. Her goal is to provide comprehensive oral care for her pediatric patients and to educate future generations of dentists and scientists. Her research focuses on diagnostics and therapeutics of early childhood caries (ECC) related to microbiome and host susceptibility.

Dr. He has a broad background in Microbiology, particularly oral microbiology with comprehensive knowledge of microbial genetics, cell-cell communication, microbial ecology and microbial-host interaction. He received his DDS from Peking University and PhD in Microbiology from Indiana University. He joined the School of Dentistry at UCLA in 2007 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2016. He has since joined the Forsyth Institute in 2018.

Dr. Maurizio Fava is Psychiatrist-in-Chief of Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Dean for Clinical & Translational Research at Harvard Medical School. His prominence in the field of psychiatry is reflected in his role as the co-principal investigator of STAR*D, the largest research study ever conducted in the area of depression, and of the RAPID Network, the NIMH-funded series of studies of novel, rapidly-acting antidepressant therapies.

Dr. Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello is the Henry Rutgers Professor of Microbiome and Health (in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology) and of Anthropology at Rutgers. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and has served on the editorial boards of 7 biomedical journals (currently mBio and Nature Scientific Reports). Her work focuses on the ancestral and early microbiome and studies its impacts on health.

Dr. Camilia R. Martin is a leading neonatologist and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, as well as the Associate Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Director for Cross-Disciplinary Research Partnerships in the Division of Translational Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Her work focuses on the health impacts of neonatal nutrition in preterm infants and she has been cited over 3,000 times.

Dr. Indira Mysorekar is a Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Director of the Center for Reproductive Health Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine, where she researches the mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of the urinary bladder and novel infectious etiologies for premature birth. She has been cited over 9,000 times and is the recipient of the prestigious Pathway to Independence (K99/R00) award from the NIH.

Dr. Marina R. Walther-Antonio is an Associate Consultant in the Department of Surgery with a joint appointment in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Her research focuses on the microbiome’s role in cancer and reproductive health. Her active research efforts include the connection between the microbiome and endometrial and ovarian cancer to find better prevention, detection, and treatment approaches.

Dr. Alessio Fasano is Division Chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children and Director of the Center for Celiac Research and Treatment. He is a world-renowned pediatric gastroenterologist, research scientist, and entrepreneur who specializes in patients with acute and chronic diarrheal diseases as well as infants and children who have difficult-to-treat gastrointestinal problems.

A pioneer in the field of Translational Allergy and Immunology, Dr. Kari Nadeau is the Naddisy Foundation Endowed Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and Director of the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University. She is Section Chief in Asthma and Allergy in the Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Division at Stanford, and is now the Sr. Director of Clinical Research for the Division of Hospital Medicine.

Dr. Kelly Swanson is a professor in Human Nutrition, Animal Sciences and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois. His lab studies nutritional interventions on health outcomes, how diet impacts host physiology and gut microbiota, with an emphasis on gastrointestinal health and obesity in dogs, cats, humans and rodent models. In addition to research, he is an active instructor and serves on the advisory boards of IAFNS and ISAPP.