October 23rd 2023
Seminar 23 October 2023 - The Gut Microbiome as a Tool for Individualised Medicine
Update: Thank you to all who attended. For those who could not make it, Dr Zimmermann's presentation is available for viewing below.
The BRCCH cordially invites you to join our seminar about the gut microbiome and individualised medicine. Prof Randall Platt (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) and Prof Andrew Macpherson (University Hospital Bern, Switzerland) will share their BRCCH consortium’s research progress in using engineered bacteria as a non-invasive diagnostic tool to survey the gastrointestinal tract and support child health worldwide. Dr Michael Zimmermann (EMBL - Heidelberg, Germany) will highlight his work investigating how interpersonal differences in the gut microbiome influence bacterial drug metabolism, activity and toxicity.
When: Monday, 23rd October 2023, 16:00 - 17:30 CET, to be followed by an apéro
Where: Hybrid Zoom / Seminarraum U1.197– Biozentrum, University of Basel, Spitalstrasse 41, 4056 Basel
Zoom Registration: HERE
In Person Registration: HERE
Directions and location information
Schedule:
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- Welcome by Dr Katie Guzzetta (ETH Zurich & BRCCH Postdoctoral Researcher)
- Keynote by Prof Randall Platt (ETH Zurich & BRCCH Lead Researcher): "Living Microbial Diagnostics to Enable Individualised Child Health Interventions"
- Keynote by Prof Andrew Macpherson (University Hospital Bern & BRCCH Lead Researcher): "An Update on the University of Zimbabwe Birth Cohort Study"
- Keynote by Dr Michael Zimmermann (EMBL - Heidelberg): "Identifying Gut Microbiome Contributions to Drug Metabolism and Carcinogen Toxicity"
- Q&A and Closing
- Networking Apéro
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Speakers:
Dr Katie Guzzetta
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Moderator
Dr Katie Guzzetta is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof Randy Platt at ETH Zurich. Her research focuses on developing bacteria-based technologies to diagnose nutritional deficiencies and other health disruptions related to the gut microbiome. Prior to this, Katie completed her PhD in Neuroscience and Anatomy at the APC Microbiome Institute in Cork, Ireland, where she studied how the gut microbiota influences neurodevelopment and behavior under the mentorship of Prof John Cryan and Dr Olivia O’Leary. Outside of the lab, Katie enjoys spending time hiking and camping in the mountains, skiing, and exploring diverse countries and cultures.
Prof Randall Platt
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Talk: "Living Microbial Diagnostics to Enable Individualised Child Health Interventions"
Prof Randall (Randy) Platt holds associate professorships at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE) at ETH Zurich and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Basel. Prof Platt studied biomedical engineering and chemistry at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, USA. In 2011, he obtained an MPhil in material science from Imperial College London, UK, and in 2016 he received a PhD in biological engineering from MIT, USA. After a joint postdoctoral fellowship between MIT, Harvard University, and the Broad Institute, he was appointed as a tenure-track assistant professor at ETH Zurich and the University of Basel in October 2016.
Prof Platt co-leads the BRCCH project: Living Microbial Diagnostics to Enable Individualised Child Health Interventions. Read more here.
Prof Andrew Macpherson
University Hospital Bern, Switzerland
Talk: "An Update on the University of Zimbabwe Birth Cohort Study"
Prof Andrew Macpherson is a Professor of Medicine at Inselspital Bern. His laboratory has worked on immune and non-immune mechanisms of host-microbial mutualism using animal models and translational work in human subjects. He has set up collaborations with Zimbabwean and Kenyan colleagues in order to address the problem of dysbiosis that triggers intestinal dysfunction and stunting in young children in low- and middle-income countries.
Prof Macpherson co-leads the BRCCH project: Living Microbial Diagnostics to Enable Individualised Child Health Interventions. Read more here.
Dr Michael Zimmermann
European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Heidelberg, Germany
Talk: "Identifying Gut Microbiome Contributions to Drug Metabolism and Carcinogen Toxicity"
Michael Zimmermann is a group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg. Michael received his Bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Basel University and his Master’s degree in Biotechnology from the Ecole Supérieure de Biotechnologie (ESBS) in Strasbourg. Michael performed his PhD work at ETH Zurich in metabolomics and Systems Biology and he pursued his postdoctoral training at Yale University to investigate metabolic host-microbiome interactions. His research group at EMBL employs bacterial genetics, metabolomics, gnotobiotic mouse work, and mathematical modeling to systematically map metabolic microbiota-host interactions. Among several honors and scholarships, Michael was awarded the Daimler Benz Scholarship, Agilent’s Steve Berger Award, the 2021 FEBS Anniversary Prize, and an ERC Starting Grant.