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.
Ruth Ley, PhD
Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, Germany
Dr. Ruth Ley is the Director of the Department of Microbiome Science at the Max Planck Institute for Biology, Tübingen. Ley received a BA in Integrative Biology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1992, a PhD from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2001. She received a NRC-NASA Fellowship for post-doctoral work with Dr. Norman Pace at CU Boulder. In 2004 she moved to Washington University School of Medicine to work with Dr. Jeffrey Gordon on the human microbiome. She was named an Instructor in 2005 and a Research Assistant Professor at Washington University School of Medicine in 2007. In July 2008, Ley joined the Department of Microbiology at Cornell University as an Assistant Professor, and in 2013 became an Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. She is a Member of the Max Planck Society since 2016. Ley’s awards include a Fellowship in Science and Engineering from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, a Beckman Young Investigator Award, the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the ISME Young Investigator Award, and the Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine. She is a member of EMBO, of the European Academy of Microbiology, and of the American Academy of Microbiology. In 2020 she was elected to the Leopoldina German National Academy of Sciences. She is the recipient of the 2020 Otto Bayer award, and an ERC Advanced Grant (2024).
Bluesky
Plenary Speakers
Shalina Ousman, PhD
University of Calgary, Canada
Dr. Shalina Ousman is a 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
Dr. Glen Carter is a Group Leader in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne, Australia. He is an expert in the use of small animal models and multi-omics approaches to investigate enteric pathogens and antimicrobial resistance at the molecular level. His research programme focuses on three key areas: defining the molecular basis of resistance to last-line antimicrobials; understanding how the gastrointestinal microbiome confers colonisation resistance against multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs); and developing novel small-molecule antimicrobials. The aim of his work is to translate fundamental discoveries into new antimicrobial and microbiome-based strategies to combat the rising threat of MDROs.
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.
Genelle Lunken, PhD
University of British Columbia, Canada
Dr. Genelle Lunken is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She is also a registered dietitian and the translational research lead at the IBD Centre of BC (https://ibdcentrebc.ca/lunkenlab/).
Dr. Lunken completed her doctoral studies in Nutritional Science at Massey University in New Zealand, where her research primarily focused on investigating the impact of habitual dietary fibre intake on the response of gut microbiota to a prebiotic (fibre) intervention. In 2017, she relocated to Vancouver, Canada, to begin a postdoctoral fellowship under the mentorship of Drs. Bruce Vallance and Kevan Jacobson at UBC. During this time, her research interests expanded to explore the interplay between fibre, gut microbiota, and inflammation using mouse models of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
In 2023, Dr. Lunken established her own research laboratory at UBC. Her lab focuses on expanding our understanding of host-immune-microbe interactions, with a particular emphasis on identifying host (e.g., diet) and microbial factors that contribute to variable responses to medical and dietary therapies in IBD patients. A significant component of her research aims to explore the role of fungi in IBD, including how fungal communities influence response to therapy, their spatial location in the gut, and how dietary factors modulate fungal populations. To investigate the mechanistic interactions between bacteria, fungi, and diet – and to better understand inter-individual responses to dietary interventions – she has established an in vitro fermentation system (mini bioreactor array) in her lab. Through this work, she aims to uncover the microbial and nutritional drivers of individualized treatment responses, ultimately advancing precision-based therapeutic strategies to improve outcomes for individuals living with IBD.
Benoit Chassaing, PhD
Institut Pasteur, 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.
Nicholas Arpaia, PhD
Columbia University, USA
Dr. Nicholas Arpaia received a B.S. in Biochemistry from the State University of New York, Geneseo in 2006 and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology (Immunology and Pathogenesis) from the University of California, Berkeley in 2011. His graduate work with Dr. Gregory M. Barton examined interactions between Salmonella typhimurium and the innate immune system and demonstrated that Toll-like receptor–sensing of S. typhimurium promotes pathogen virulence and immune evasion. As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Alexander Y. Rudensky at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Arpaia investigated how tissue-resident leukocytes sense changes in their local environment and identified environmental signals that drive the differentiation and specialization of regulatory T (Treg) cell subsets. He began his independent laboratory as an Assistant Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in 2016 and was promoted to Associate Professor (with tenure) in 2024. His research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms that drive pro- vs. anti-inflammatory immune responses in mucosal barrier tissues and the tumor microenvironment. Dr. Arpaia serves as the Director of the Microbiology & Immunology Graduate Program and Associate Director of the Integrated Doctoral Program in Cellular, Molecular, and Biomedical Sciences. He was named a Searle Scholar in 2017 and received the Harold and Golden Lamport Award for Excellence in Basic Science Research in 2021. Find the Arpaia Lab on Twitter (@arpaialab), and at www.arpaialab.nyc.
Nicola Harris, PhD
Monash University, Australia
Dr. Nicola Harris completed her PhD in New Zealand, then moved to Switzerland as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Nobel Laureate Rolf Zinkernagel, University of Zurich. In 2005, she joined the ETH Zurich as an Assistant Professor, and in 2009 moved to EPFL, Lausanne. In 2012, she gained a prestigious ERC starting grant and was promoted to Associate Professor. In 2018, she moved to the Department of Immunology and Pathology, School of Translational Medicine, Monash University, where she co-leads the laboratory of Mucosal Immunology. Her laboratory studies pulmonary and intestinal immune responses with a particular focus on understanding interactions between immune cells, neurons and epithelial cells and how these interactions regulate physiological function and wound repair/tissue regeneration during health and disease.
Braedon McDonald, MD, PhD, FRCPC
University of Calgary, Canada
Dr. Braedon McDonald is an Associate Professor and Director of Research and Innovation in the Department of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine. Braedon trained in microbiology and immunology at McGill University, followed by an MD and PhD in immunology at the University of Calgary. He then completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of British Columbia, followed by fellowship training in Adult Critical Care Medicine at the University of Calgary, as well as a postdoctoral fellowship at the International Microbiome Centre. Braedon is a clinician-scientist in the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases, and leads a translational and basic science research program on microbiome-immune interactions in infection and critical illness.
Valerie Taylor, MD, PhD, FRCPC, ICD.D
University of Calgary, Canada
Dr. Valerie Taylor, MD, PhD, FRCPC, ICD.D is a Professor and the Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Calgary and the Departmental Science Advisor for Health Canada. By way of background, Dr. Taylor completed a Bachelors of Medical Science and graduated from medical school at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She subsequently finished her residency training in Psychiatry, a PhD in Neuroscience and two post-doctoral fellowships at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She has also obtained an Improving and Driving Excellence across Sectors (IDEAS) Ontario certification in Quality Improvement, a certificate from the Mental Health Commission of Canada for their Promotion of Activated Research and Knowledge (SPARK) Training Program, a Rotman Advanced Health Leadership diploma and a certificate from the Haskayne School of Business as part of their inaugural “financial feminist” cohort. Most recently she competed the Institute of Corporate Directors Certificate and the Behavioral Economics program at Harvard School of Business. In 2020 she was named one of the top 100 most powerful women in STEM in Canada.
Her academic focus has been on the area of medical psychiatry, with a focus on biomarkers. For the last 10 years she has worked on the gut brain axis and the area of the gut microbiome. She is the only funded researcher examining the therapeutic effects of fecal transplant as a treatment for mental illness and she currently has 4 novel clinical trials looking at modifying the gut microbiome to treat mood disorders and runs the largest biological neuroscience microbiome repository in North America. She has over 200 peer reviewed publications and funding from a variety of national and international funding agencies.
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
Dr. Lauren Davey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at the University of Victoria. She completed her PhD at Dalhousie University in the Canadian Center for Vaccinology under the supervision of Drs. Scott Halperin and Song Lee, studying bacteria in the oral microbiome. She then completed postdoctoral training at the Duke Microbiome Center in the lab of Dr. Raphael Valdivia, where she began developing genetic tools for the gut bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila. Her lab focuses on Akkermansia muciniphila, using genetic tools, animal models, and bioinformatics to understand how this organism colonizes the gut and interacts with the host. Current work includes engineering Akkermansia strains, investigating how dietary compounds influence microbial colonization, and exploring how the gut microbiome can be used to promote healthy aging.
Ann Gregory, PhD
University of Calgary, Canada
Dr. Ann Gregory is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary. She holds a PhD from Ohio State University and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at KU Leuven. Her research mostly explores the human virome, the vast collection of viruses residing within and on our bodies. Using both computational and experimental approaches, she and her lab aim to unravel how these viruses interact with our immune system and other microbes, and how they influence our health. Computationally, Dr. Gregory’s lab is using new advances in AI to identify new viruses based on their 3D structures and map viral interactions across the human body to understand their distribution and impact. Experimentally, her lab is isolating gut viruses to develop personalized phage therapies for gut-related diseases. She aims to advance virus discovery and pave the way for novel therapeutic strategies using viruses.