Matt Koci
Matt Koci got his BS in Biology from Virginia Tech, followed by his MS and PhD from the University of Georgia. Following a post-doc at the University of Wisconsin, he joined the faculty at NC State where he is professor of viral and mucosal immunology in the Prestage Department of Poultry Science. His lab focuses on gut health and enteric diseases of poultry. It was this research and the need for novel ways to augment the avian immune system that led his group to study the microbiome.
Ben Willing, PhD
Dr. Benjamin Willing is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Microbiology of Nutrigenomics at the University of Alberta. He and his team have made important contributions in the understanding of microbes in intestinal development, inflammatory bowel disease, infection resistance, and metabolic health. His research group is working to understand both fundamental and applied questions in gut microbiology. Fundamental research includes identifying mechanisms through which specific core members of the microbiome regulate host physiology using germfree rodent and piglet models. Applied questions include utilizing diet and microbiome to shape immune development to support resistance to enteric pathogens and general disease resilience of poultry and swine.
Ivan Rychlik
Ivan Rychlik is a leader of Salmonella group and vice-director of the Veterinary Research Institute, Brno, Czech Republic. Current research interests include composition and function of chicken gut microbiota, chicken response to microbiota of different composition and use of defined mixtures of gut microbiota for the prevention of chicken colonisation with Salmonella and Campylobacter.
Renee Petri
Dr. Renée Petri is a dairy rumen and gut microbiome research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Sherbrooke, Canada. She was hired in 2020 after obtaining her B.Sc. (2005) at the University of Alberta and her M.Sc. (2009) and Ph.D (2013) degrees at the University of Saskatchewan. Dr. Petri had also completed 5 years as a senior scientist for the Dairy Feed-Gut Microbiome research group at the University of Veterinary Medicine, in Vienna, Austria. Her research group has focused on the feed-microbe-host interactions associated with feed additives and feed management during lactation. Dr. Petri has published a total of 43 scientific papers and 42 conference proceedings. Dr. Petri has secured over $4 million dollars in research funds as a Co-PI and is currently an adjunct professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia and at Laval University in Quebec city. Dr. Petri`s current research focuses evaluating the impact of feed, feed-management, and feed additives on AMR, host-microbe crosstalk, immunity and the mitigation of production related diseases. As well as working to develop alternatives to antibiotics to reduce antibiotic usage. Individual project range from miRNA involvement in rumen cross-talk to screening plant compounds for impacts of rumen microbiology and physiology, as well as the role of trace mineral feeding on metal resistance genes across agricultural landscapes. Dr. Petri is also an organizing committee member for the Animal Nutrition Conference of Canada and an associate editor for the Canadian Journal of Animal Science.
Mirja Huhtinen
With more than 22 years of experience in Animal Health Research and Development, Mirja contributed significantly to several novel pharmaceutical product authorizations for companion animals in EU and US.
She graduated in 1988 from Veterinary College in Helsinki and started her career as a Research Fellow at MTT Agrifood Research, where she worked at the stud farm and carried out research regarding equine reproduction and embryo transfer.Having completed herPhD in 1999, she joined the pharmaceutical industry.
Since 2005 she has been the Head of Animal Health in the joint (human and AH) Clinical R&D, and more recently the Director of Animal Health R&D at Orion Corporation, who develops proprietary products for global markets. Our best known Animal Health brands are Domosedan, Dexdomitor, Domitor, Antisedan, and the new product for treatment of noise aversion in dogs, Sileo. In the microbiome area, we have been the forerunner with our competitive exclusion product, Broilact
John Parkinson, PhD
John is a Senior Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and holds cross-appointments in the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. Research in his group focuses on the application of computational and systems approaches to study the role of microbes in health and disease. Of particular interest is the application of metatranscriptomic and in silico modelling to study complex microbial communitites. Applied to poultry, John and his group are investigating the interactions between age, diet, prrebiotics, probiotics and biogeography on the structure and function of microbial communities in the chicken gut
Garret Suen
Garret Suen studies how symbiotic microbes convert biomass into usable nutrients for their herbivore hosts and how this is applicable to the production of biofuels. His research includes understanding the microbes associated with the deconstruction of biomass and what genetic or molecular mechanisms are used. In application, the highly efficient cellulose degraders found in these microbial communities could be applied to the breakdown of biomass material allowing biofuels to be created using less energy.
Emily Stein
Emily Stein, PhD. Founded Primal Health, LLC in 2017 to focus on improving the dental health of both humans and animals by producing oral microbiome modulation products. She has spent 12 years developing SMMRT technology at Primal Therapies, Inc., which is focused on using metabolic influences to re-engineer disease-causing bacterial biofilms into those that are health-promoting, to decrease inflammation and to improve outcomes. Prior to that, she spent 7 years as a research fellow at Stanford University in Rheumatology and Immunology focused on the neuro-endocrine-immune axis in autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases. She holds a Phd. in Microbiology from the University of California at Berkeley where she studied inter- and intra-cellular signalling pathways involved in stress response and community development in bacteria and received her B.S. in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Iowa where she studied the interaction between M. tuberculosis and innate immune cells
Ravi Sheth
Ravi Sheth is co-founder of Kingdom Supercultures, an ingredient and biotechnology company that designs and supplies a new class of natural ingredients (Supercultures) based on combinations of natural cultures. These Supercultures enable leading food, beverage and personal care manufacturers to create new products that are healthier, sustainable and natural. Ravi received his PhD from Columbia University as a Hertz and NSF fellow where his work studying the gut microbiome was published in top scientific journals including Science, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Methods and more. During his PhD, he also spent a summer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation working on childhood malnutrition. He received his undergraduate degree in bioengineering at Rice and where he cofounded an edtech startup, STEAMtrax, that was acquired by a public company.