Oct. 07, 2015 –
On Sept. 25, the third annual Microbiome Symposium was held at CALIT2 Irvine. About 80 people attended the all-day event, co-hosted by UCI’s Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics, CALIT2 and Initiative for Data Science at UC Irvine.
The term “microbiome” was coined by Joshua Lederberg, an American molecular biologist, who argued that microorganisms inhabiting the human body should be included as part of the human genome because of their influence on human physiology. Microbiome’s most important aspect may be its possible effect on auto-immune diseases like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, and perhaps some cancers.
At this year’s event, titled, Microbiome Connections to the Environment and Health, leading experts and researchers shared their findings and discussed possible opportunities for future collaboration.
PRESENTERS AND TOPICS
Katherine Mackey, UC Irvine
Exploring Evolutionary Drivers of Phytoplankton Diversity and Distribution
Allon Hochbaum, UC Irvine, Engineering
Microbial Communities through Interspecies Interaction
Luke Thompson, UC San Diego
Computational Tools for Environmental Genomics and the Earth Microbiome Project
Amir Zarrinpar, UC San Diego
Cyclical Fluctuations of the Gut Microbiome and Its Relationship to Host Metabolism
Paolo Sassone-Corsi, UC Irvine
Gut Microbiome and the Circadian Clock
Laurie Cox, New York University
The Infant Microbiota Shapes Development and Long-term Health
Elizabeth Costello, Stanford
Human Microbiome Dynamics in the First 1,000 Days of Life
Sarkis Mazmanian, Caltech
The Gut-Microbiome-Brain Connection
