Foundation Moving health forward through microbiota

Harry Sokol is Professor in the Gastroenterology department of the Saint Antoine Hospital (APHP, Paris, France) and is the head of the Gut Microbiota and Immunity lab (INSERM U1157/UMR CNRS 7203, UPMC, and INRA, Micalis).  Harry Sokol is an internationally recognized expert in IBD and in gut microbiota fields. He published over 120 papers on these topics and is reviewer for several major peer review journals (including Gut, Gastroenterology, Mucosal Immunology, ISME journal, Nature Methods, Science Translational Medicine and Nature). He received several awards including the French Medical Academy Award in 2009 and a rising star award from the United European Gastroenterology Federation in 2013. His work on the role of the gut microbiota in IBD pathogenesis led to landmark papers describing the IBD-associated dysbiosis (imbalance in gut microbiota composition) and the role of the pivotal commensal bacteria Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in gut homeostasis and in IBD. Currently, his work focuses on deciphering the gut microbiota-host interactions in health and diseases (particularly IBD), including viruses and fungi, in order to better understand their pathogenesis and develop innovative treatments. Harry Sokol is now exploring particularly the role of the microbiota in tryptophan metabolism for which he is recipient of an ERC starting grant (2017-2021). 
Beside basic science work, he is also involved in translational research and notably coordinates two French randomized control trial evaluating fecal microbiota transplantation in Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
 

Joël Doré joined INRA in 1983 and received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the U.S. in 1988. Trained in the school of microbes, he developed intestinal metagenomics for diagnostic applications and tools used to study interactions between food, microbiota, and their hosts. With more than 180 publications (and an h-index of 52), Doré received LABIP’s International Science Award for Outstanding Excellence in Lactic Acid Bacteria Research with Industrial Relevance in 2008. In 2014, he won the Simone and Cino del Duca Foundation’s Grand Prize in Science (along with S.D. Ehrlich) for his scientific contribution to the topic “Microbiome and Homeostasis”. In 2016, he received the Dupont Nutrition & Health Science Medal for Excellence in Microbial Research. Doré’s mission is to contribute to a better understanding of the symbiosis between humans and microbes to improve prevention and treatment.

He is the cofounder of and science consultant at MaaT Pharma and science coordinator of the website gutmicrobiotaforhealth.com.

Professor Francisco Guarner graduated in Medicine at the University of Barcelona and trained in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, at the Hospital Clinic; Ph.D. degree in Medicine at the University of Navarra. Visiting Scientist and Research Fellow at the Upjohn Company in Kalamazoo (Michigan, USA, 1983), the Royal Free Hospital (London, UK, 1984), the King’s College Hospital (London, UK, 1984-1986), and the Wellcome Research Laboratories (Beckenham, UK, 1986). Professor Francisco Guarner is currently Consultant of Gastroenterology at the Digestive System Research Unit and Head of the Experimental Laboratory at the University Hospital Vall d’Hebron (Barcelona). He is member of the Steering Committee of the International Human Microbiome Consortium (IHMC), and head of the Scientific Committee of the Gut Microbiota for Health Section of the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility. Co-author of 308 publications in the field of mucosal immunity, gastrointestinal inflammation and gut microbiota; holds an H-index of 54 (Web of Science).

Christoph Högenauer is Associated Professor of Medicine at the University Hospital of the Medical University Graz, where he is also the head of the Theodor Escherich Laboratory of Microbiome Research.  Christoph Högenauer is an internationally recognized expert in IBD, intestinal infections and in the field of the gastrointestinal microbiota. He has published in major peer review journals (New England Journal of Medicine,  PNAS, Gastroenterology, JCI, American  Journal of  Gastroenterology, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics). His research fields are on antibiotic associated colitis, bacterial virulence factors, gut microbiota and on fecal microbiota transplantation. In his clinical work as a Gastroenterologist he focuses besides treatment of IBD on interventional endoscopy and intensive care medicine. Christoph Högenauer is currently the head of the IBD section of the Austrian Society of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. 
 

Prof Simrén’s research focuses on the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of functional GI disorders, as well as the treatment of these. He is the head of a large translational and multidisciplinary neurogastroenterology research group at the University in Gothenburg in Sweden, and holds an adjunct professor position at UNC with the main focus to perform collaborative research on clinical, epidemiological and management aspects on irritable bowel syndrome, fecal incontinence and other functional GI disorders.

Nicola Segata is an Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator at the Centre for Integrative Biology at University of Trento. He leads the ERC-supported Laboratory of Computational Metagenomics (http://segatalab.cibio.unitn.it) that employs multiple complementary approaches combining computation and experimentation to study the diversity of microorganisms populating the human body and their role in human dysbiosis and infection. Dr. Nicola Segata is an internationally recognized expert in computational biology, metagenomics, and microbiome research.

Dr. Elena Verdu studied medicine at the University of Buenos Aires and completed a residency in Internal Medicine in Buenos Aires. During her residency, she lectured on Human Physiology at the University of Buenos Aires. She then obtained a fellowship from the Swiss National Foundation, moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, to work with Professor Andre Blum in clinical research. There, she studied the interaction between chronic infection with Helicobacter pylori and proton pump inhibitors on gastric acid secretion, bacterial overgrowth, and chronic gastritis in humans. During her Doctoral work in the Department of Gnotobiology and Microbiology at the Czech Academy of Science (working with Professor Helena Tlaskalova), she gained experience in animal models of inflammatory bowel disease (the most common and chronic inflammatory condition of the human bowel), intestinal microbiota, and gnotobiotic work. As a post-doctoral fellow at McMaster University, she worked on the role of probiotics in animal models of gut functional diseases. Dr. Verdu became a faculty member at McMaster University in 2006 and her research focuses on the pathophysiology of inflammatory disorders with emphasis on diet-microbiota interactions. Dr. Verdu is the director of the Axenic Gnotobiotic Unit at McMaster University and holds a Canada Research Chair in Intestinal Inflammation, Microbiota, and Nutrition. She has received several research awards including the Canadian Celiac Association’s J.A. Campbell Research Award, Master’s in Gastroenterology by the American Gastroenterology Association and Young Investigator Award and Visiting Research Professor by the Canadian Gastroenterology Association. She is President of the North American Society for the Study of Celiac Disease.
 

Dr. Wu is the Ferdinand G. Weisbrod Professor in Gastroenterology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where he is the Associate Chief for Research in the Division of Gastroenterology and is also the Associate Director of the Center for Molecular Studies in Digestive and Liver Disease. He was the inaugural Director and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the American Gastroenterological Association Center for Gut Microbiome Research and Education and is an elected member of both the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He was the 2015 recipient of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation Achievement in IBD Basic Research Award and is currently the Co-Director of the PennCHOP Microbiome Program. The research programs in the Wu laboratory focus on the mutualistic interactions between the gut microbiota and the host with a particular focus on metabolism. Current areas of investigation include the effect of diet on the gut microbiome and its subsequence effect on host metabolism with a focus on understanding their relationship to the therapeutic responses associated with the use of defined formula diets in the treatment of Crohn’s disease. Insights gained from these projects will hopefully lead to the development of better diets for patients with IBD.