Having IMPACTT 5:
Advancing Microbiome Research
Sept 22-24, 2025
Speaker Profiles
Keynote Speaker
Robert Jenq, MD
City of Hope, USA
Robert R. Jenq, M.D., is director of the City of Hope Microbiome Program and a clinical professor in the Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation. He is a physician-scientist who manages the care of adults undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation and directs a research laboratory. His research efforts have focused on effects of the bacterial microbiome on outcomes in cancer patients, including hematopoietic cell transplantation, checkpoint blockade immunotherapy, and CAR-T cell therapy.
Plenary Speakers
Shalina Ousman, PhD
University of Calgary, Canada
Dr. Shalina Ousman is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Clinical Neurosciences and, Cell Biology & Anatomy at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary. Dr. Ousman completed her PhD in Neurosciences in 2001 with Dr. Samuel David at McGill University followed by two postdoctoral fellowships, the first with Dr. Iain Campbell in the Department of Neuropharmacology at The Scripps Research Institute (2001-2004) and the second with Dr. Lawrence Steinman in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University (2007-2008). She joined the Hotchkiss Brain Institute in 2008. Dr. Ousman is interested in identifying endogenous protective mechanisms in multiple sclerosis and peripheral nerve regeneration. Her research is funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research and Multiple Sclerosis Canada.
Glen Carter, PhD
University of Melbourne, Australia
Bio coming soon.
Jeremiah Faith, PhD
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA
Dr. Jeremiah Faith is a Professor in the Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. His research focuses on modeling the interactions between gut microbes and host physiology with an emphasis on Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Ongoing research in the lab includes: 1) understanding the influence of gut microbiota strain variation on human disease risk, 2) identifying microbial strains that modulate host phenotypic variation, 3) the stability of the human gut microbiota, and 4) microbiome-based therapeutics.
Melody Zeng, PhD
Weill Cornell Medicine, USA
Dr. Melody Zeng is an Associate Professor of Immunology in the Department of Pediatrics of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. The overarching goal of her research is to identify and define gut microbiome-regulated immune pathways in early life that impact the long-term health in women and children. To accomplish this goal, her laboratory has developed innovative gnotobiotic mouse models and genetic knockout mice for studies of the development of the immune system and the crosstalk between immune cells and gut bacteria in early life. They have the expertise to isolate and functionally assess or profile the transcriptomes of immune cells and bacteria from various tissues, including the intestine, placenta, lung and brain, for studies of the interactions between immune cells and gut bacteria in early life immune tolerance, infection, and modulation by diet. Furthermore, by leveraging an infant stool biobank established in our lab, they validate their mouse findings in the human system through metabolomic and metagenomic profiling of human infant stool bacteria as well as gnotobiotic mice that harbor human infant bacteria. Through additional collaboration with research labs with complementary expertise within and outside Weill Cornell Medicine, they employ multi-disciplinary approaches to identify and define gut microbiome-regulated immune pathways to advance therapeutic development for diseases that stem from gut immune dysregulation in early life, including neurodevelopment, cancer, infection and allergy.
Benoit Chassaing, PhD
INSERM, France
Dr. Benoit Chassaing obtained his PhD in microbiology at the University of Clermont-Ferrand (France), identifying factors involved in the virulence of adherent and invasive Escherichia coli strains (pathovar involved in the etiology of Crohn’s disease). He then joined Georgia State University to work on various subjects related to mucosal immunology, trying to decipher how genetic and environmental factors can perturb intestinal microbiota composition in a detrimental way, leading to intestinal inflammation.
Currently a Professor at Institut Pasteur/INSERM in France, his laboratory focuses on understanding how environmental factors are involved in shaping detrimental microbiota, with a particular focus on intestinal inflammation and metabolic deregulations.
IMPACTT Mentee Speakers
Elsa Rousseau, PhD
Université Laval, Canada
Dr. Elsa Rousseau is an Assistant Professor at Université Laval since July 2021, in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, as well as a member of the Nutrition, Health and Society Research Center (Centre NUTRISS). She was hired thanks to a Junior 1 research scholarship in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Health from the FRQS. Her background lies in bioinformatics and modeling. She holds a PhD and a first postdoctoral fellowship in virus evolution and epidemiological modeling. She completed a second postdoctoral fellowship in bioinformatics and machine learning to characterize the gut microbiome of Nunavik Inuit. Her research program as a professor focuses on the development of artificial intelligence approaches to shed light on the interrelationships between bacteria and their phages, and their link with their environment (such as the human gut microbiome). She is particularly interested in the development of machine learning tools for the prediction of bacteria and phage biomarkers of host nutrition and health, based on omics data. She is also focusing on the development of computational tools to predict the bacterial hosts of phages, based on various information.
Maryam Kebbe, PhD
University of New Brunswick, Canada
Dr. Maryam Kebbe received her Doctorate in Medical Sciences from the University of Alberta’s Department of Pediatrics. She completed postdoctoral training in the Medical Sciences Division at the University of Oxford first, followed by the Reproductive Endocrinology and Women’s Health Laboratory at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana. Dr. Kebbe joined the Faculty of Kinesiology at UNB in January 2023, where she is an Assistant Professor and directs the Perinatal-Pediatric Health & Development Studies Laboratory.
Dr. Kebbe’s research program investigates the connections between early life nutrition, physical activity, metabolism, and the gut microbiome, aiming to enhance metabolic health and prevent obesity in early life. Dr. Kebbe has led over 50 peer-reviewed publications, 1 book chapter on human milk feeding, over 130 presentations, and over 40 media communications or knowledge translation activities.
Dr. Kebbe has also received numerous awards and recognitions for her research and scientific contributions, including the 2024 UNB Merit Award, Faculty of Kinesiology Teaching Excellence Award, ImPaCTrials Award, Banting Discovery Award, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation-JELF Award. Most recently, she was recognized as one of Atlantic Canada’s 25 Most Powerful Women in Business for 2025. When she is not professing, Dr. Kebbe enjoys travelling and outdoor activities.
Lauren Davey, PhD
University of Victoria, Canada
Bio coming soon.
Ann Gregory, PhD
University of Calgary, Canada
Bio coming soon.
