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Human Microbiome: Recent Advances and New Treatments

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Recent Advances and New Treatments in Understanding the Human Microbiome

 

Cambridge Health Tech Institute

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Dear Colleague,

While the microbiome R&D is an emerging area of science that is starting to prove its importance, much advancement has been made in using the microbiome as a tool for therapeutic development.

Over 15 leading researchers and thought leaders assemble at Drug Discovery on Target’s Targeting the Microbiome Track this September 22-23, 2015 in Boston, MA to share best practices and applications of these important advancements.

These particular presentations in the Track discuss advancements, new concepts in treatment of disease, computational approaches, ecological perspectives, and more:

Keynote Presentation: Recent Advances in Understanding the Human Microbiome 

Karen E. Nelson, Ph.D., President, J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI)

Our recent studies on the human microbiome highlight a higher degree of microbial diversity within and across individuals than was previously appreciated as well as new microbial species whose roles remain unexplored. Studying healthy and diseased human populations, their microbiomes and circulating metabolites present new opportunities for defining novel diagnostics and therapeutic approaches for several human diseases. It is clear that the advent of metagenomics holds significant promise for increasing our understanding of many microbial diseases associated with the human body, inclusive of those that are yet to be characterized.

Computational and Synthetic Biology Approaches for Discovering Microbiome Interactions and Functions

Georg K. Gerber, M.D., Ph.D., MPH, Assistant Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School; Co-Director, Center for Clinical and Translation Metagenomics, Director, Computational Unit, Associate Pathologist, Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

I will describe: (1) a new computational approach for accurately predicting microbiota dynamics, with applications to finding networks of bacteria that protect against a human enteric pathogen, and (2) a synthetic biology platform to functionally mine bacterial genomes for genes that contribute to fitness, with applications to finding genes important for colonizing the mammalian gut over time.

Studying the Microbiome Community Networks Across Different Body Sites

Corrado Priami, Ph.D., Professor, Computer Science, The University of Trento; President and CEO, The Microsoft Research – University of Trento Centre for Computational and Systems Biology (COSBI)

The study aims to get an ecological view of microbiota from systems perspective across different body sites. Microbiome community networks were computed for samples from two different body sources, based on maximal information content. The patterns were compared and enriched with functional annotation to discover strong relationships between biological processes and microbes.

Keynote Presentation: Exploring the Medical Microbiome 

George M. Weinstock, Ph.D. Professor and Associate Director, Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, Farmington CT

The Human Microbiome, the collection of microbes colonizing the human body, is coming under increasingly sophisticated scrutiny as genomic technologies and analytic tools advance. Microbiome research continues to find correlations between the microbial ecology of the human body and diseases, lifestyles, and other factors. The most recent projects bring together studies of the host with that of the microbes and involve large multidisciplinary datasets that present complex profiles to be mined for diagnostic and mechanistic clues to health and disease. The fruits of this research are leading to new concepts in treatment of disease.

Hear the above and more first-hand experiences and case studies at the Targeting the Microbiome Track taking place at the 12th Annual Discovery on Target, September 22-23, 2015 in Boston, MA.

For more details on the program agenda and speaker line-up, please visit:

www.discoveryontarget.com/targeting-microbiome

I hope you’ll join us this September in Boston to learn about microbial targeted therapies and tools to improve disease treatment and health maintenance.

Sincerely,

Cindy Crowninshield, RDN, LDN, HHC
Senior Conference Director/Team Lead
Cambridge Healthtech Institute
ccrowninshield@healthtech.com End Main Content Start Footer

Cambridge Healthtech Institute

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From: “Cindy Crowninshield” <kerris@discoveryontarget.com>

Date: July 1, 2015 at 9:59:00 AM EDT

To: avivalev-ari@alum.berkeley.edu

Subject: Recent Advances and New Treatments in Understanding the Human Microbiome