Our
Speakers (A-Z)
Birgitte Holst
Professor MSO in Metabolic and Molecular Pharmacology, Founder and Head of Rodent Metabolic Phenotyping Center and Group leader of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research.
For the last more than 10 years, Prof. Birgitte Holst group has been working with the molecular pharmacology of G-protein coupled receptor involved in endocrine regulation. Most focus has been on Gut hormone receptors and its signalling properties such as biased signalling and constitutive activity and how these properties translate into in vivo functions for metabolic diseases.
Bruno Bonaz
Professor of Gastroenterology in the Grenoble Faculty of Medicine and Hospital in France
Bruno Bonaz is a Professor of Gastroenterology in the Grenoble Faculty of Medicine and Hospital in France. He is a member of the team “Cerebral Stimulation & Systems Neuroscience” (team leader: Olivier David) at the Grenoble Institute of Neurosciences, and was previously the team leader of the group Stress and Neurodigestive Interactions at the GIN.
Christopher Reyes
Co-founder and CSO, Bloom Science
Dr. Christopher Reyes is Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder at Bloom Science (www.bloomscience.co), a biotechnology company focused on dramatically improving the lives of patients. Connecting the gut microbiota to diet, metabolism, neural activity and behavior, we are developing effective microbe-based therapeutics to make measurable improvements to outcomes that matter to patients.
David Finkelstein
Assoc. Professor, Head, Parkinson’s Disease Laboratory, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health at University of Melbourne
Since graduating with a PhD in Physiology, have worked to translate knowledge from fundamental science projects to provide clinical applications. Initially the research interests were centred on the physiology of control of movement, age related neurodegeneration and regeneration. Have subsequently used this basic science knowledge and applied it into developing novel therapeutic avenues for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and Parkinsonism.
George Weinstock
Director of Microbial Genomics at Jackson Laboratory
Dr. George Weinstock is the Evnin Family Professor and Director of Microbial Genomics at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine where he established a group devoted to genomic studies of infectious diseases and the human microbiome. The group collaborates extensively with clinicians to apply genomic analyses to a wide range of medical problems.
Koen Venema
Founder & CEO of Beneficial Microbes Consultancy and Chair in Gut Microbiology at Maastricht University
Prof. Dr. Koen Venema is i) Professor at University Maastricht – campus Venlo, ii) founder and CEO of the company Beneficial Microbes Consultancy, iii) the initiator and co-organizer of the Beneficial Microbe Conference-series, and iv) editor-in-chief of Beneficial Microbes.
Marion Soto
Project leader, LNC Therapeutics
Dr. Marion Soto is leader of a project targeting the gut-brain axis at LNC Therapeutics. After graduating from the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, she earned a Ph.D. in Nutrition and Neurobiology in 2014 from AgroParisTech in France. Marion was then a fellow in C. Ronald Kahn Laboratory at Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School.
Martha G. Welch
Director of the Nurture Science Program at Columbia University Medical Center
Dr. Martha Welch is Director of the Nurture Science Program in Pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center. A neuroscientist and clinician with 40+ years of experience working with children with developmental disorders. Dr. Welch is Associate Professor of Psychiatry in Pediatrics and Pathology & Cell Biology.
Nikolaos Venizelos
Professor emeritus and Head of the Neuropsychiatric Research Laboratory & Biobank, Nutrition-Gut-Brain Interactions Research Centre (NGBI), School of Medical Sciences at Örebro University
Nikolaos Venizelos studied biomedicine at Uppsala University in Sweden and in 1981 after his Master thesis in clinical chemistry & physiology at the Karolinska Institutet, he obtained a professional certification/license as a specialist in Clinical Chemistry from the Ministry of Health in Greece.
2016, Prof. Venizelos was awarded with the “Delphic Prize for Outstanding Contributions to Psychiatry and Related Sciences”, and from 2017 he serves as Ambassador of the World Congresses of Biological Psychiatry.
Patrice Garnier
CEO at Amabiotics
Dr. Patrice Garnier is Chief Executive Officer for Amabiotics (www.amabiotics.com), a biopharmaceutical company that develops innovative diagnostics and microbiome- derived medicines to fight age-related diseases with a strong research focuses on gut-brain axis pathologies, metabolic disorders and oncology. The leading drug candidate, AMA-101, is a potential first-in- class therapy for Parkinson’s disease.
Philip Strandwitz
Co-Founder and CEO, Holobiome
Dr. Philip Strandwitz is a specialist in the microbiome, with a focus on the gut-brain-axis. Philip received his PhD in Biology under the guidance of Dr. Kim Lewis at Northeastern University, where he focused on cultivating unique bacteria from the human gut microbiota, as well as studying their ability to modulate neurotransmitters.
Robert Brummer
Professor of Gastroenterology and Clinical Nutrition, Director Nutrition-Gut-Brain Interactions Research Centre, Pro-Vice-Chancellor International, External Relations and Innovation at Örebro University.
Robert Brummer studied medicine at Nijmegen University, The Netherlands. After obtaining his MD in 1983 he was appointed as resident physician at the Department of Clinical Nutrition, Göteborg University and University Hospital, Sweden and started his PhD studies. Subsequently, he continued clinical training at the Department of Medicine, Maastricht, The Netherlands and was registered as senior consultant in Internal medicine as well as Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Rochellys Diaz Heijtz
Associate Professor and Group Leader in the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet
Dr. Rochellys Diaz Heijtz is an Associate Professor and Group Leader in the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet. Her research studies have a long-term goal of understanding the biological basis of neurodevelopmental disorders (ASD, ADHD), and how genes and the environment (prenatal and/or early postnatal) together influence typical and atypical brain development and behavior.
Ruth Ann Luna
Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Director of Medical Metagenomics in the Texas Children’s Microbiome Center (TCMC) at Texas Children’s Hospital
Dr. Ruth Ann Luna serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Director of Medical Metagenomics in the Texas Children’s Microbiome Center (TCMC) at Texas Children’s Hospital. She also serves as director of the Clinical Metagenomics Fellowship as well as a member of the Institutional Review Board at BCM.
Sarkis K. Mazmanian
Calltech and Co-Founder Axial Biotherapeutics
Sarkis K. Mazmanian, PhD, is the Luis & Nelly Soux Professor of Microbiology in the Division of Biology & Biological Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and an Investigator of the Heritage Medical Research Institute. He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles, where Dr. Mazmanian also received his PhD training in microbiology and immunology.
Sergueï O. Fetissov
Professor of physiology at Rouen University and co-founder of TargEDys.
Serguei Fetissov MD, PhD, was graduated from Military Medical Academy in St Petersburg and received his PhD from Institute of Developmental Biology of Russian Academy of Science in Moscow combined with training in Pierre & Marie Curie University in Paris. He worked as a researcher and principle investigator for more than 20 years in the field of physiology, neuroscience and nutrition in academic institutions including College de France in Paris, Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, USA and Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.
Ted Dinan
Professor of Psychiatry and a Principal Investigator in the APC Microbiome Institute at University College Cork
Ted Dinan is Professor of Psychiatry and a Principal Investigator in the APC Microbiome Institute at University College Cork. He was previously Chair of Clinical Neurosciences and Professor of Psychological Medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. Prior to that, he was a Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin.
Wouter de Jonge
Professor of Neurogastroenterology at AMC, CoFounder of Gut Research
Professor Wouter de Jonge received his doctoral training at University of Utrecht, and Columbia University, and received his Phd in 2001 (Medicine, University of Amsterdam and Maastricht). He took up postdoctoral positions at the AMC in Amsterdam (prof Guy Boeckxstaens) and Oxford University (prof Siamon Gordon). He chairs the gastro-intestinal research group (www.gut-research.com) at the AMC since 2013 and holds a part time W2 professorship at the Dept of Surgery at the University of Bonn, Germany.
