KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Gary Borisy, Ph.D.

The ADA Forsyth Institute

short bio

Gary Borisy is a Senior Investigator at The ADA Forsyth Institute, Cambridge, MA, and former President and Director of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. Dr. Borisy received his Ph.D in Biophysics from the University of Chicago and carried out postdoctoral studies at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. He was Perlman-Bascom Professor and Chair of Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, then Arey Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at Northwestern University in Chicago where he also served as Associate Vice President for Research. He is a recipient of numerous awards including an NIH MERIT Award, the Carl Zeiss Award from the German Society for Cell Biology, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Chicago and the E.B. Wilson Award from the American Society of Cell Biology. Dr. Borisy is a past President of the American Society for Cell Biology, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He has authored or co-authored more than 260 publications with more than 50,000 total citations.

Jennifer Bomberger, Ph.D.

Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

short bio

Jennifer Bomberger, PhD is the Philip J. Hanlon Second Century Professor in Personalized Treatments for Cystic Fibrosis in the department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, where she leads the Dartmouth Research and Development Program in Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Dr. Bomberger is an editor at mBio and PLoS Pathogens, is a member of the Medical Advisory Council and chairs the Infection Research Initiative at the CF Foundation and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Emily’s Entourage research foundation. Bridging her interests in epithelial biology and microbiology, the Bomberger laboratory studies viral-bacterial and polymicrobial infections in the respiratory tract. Her team is interested in how the mucosal nutritional environment and microbial interactions shape the ecology and evolution of microbes in the upper and lower respiratory tract to ultimately develop new therapies to eradicate infections that plague chronic lung disease patients, like those with CF.

Iliyan D. Iliev, Ph.D.

Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University

short bio

Iliyan Iliev is an Immunologist, Laboratory Director and an Associate Professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University, New York.

His pioneering research on the gut mycobiota defined the role of commensal fungi in innate mucosal and protective humoral immunity, and provided the first evidence for mycobiota involvement in the pathophysiology of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The laboratory develops and applies translational, experimental and computational approaches to study the role of immunity and mycobiota early and later in life, upon therapeutic interventions and during conditions, such as inflammatory bowel disease, allergy, immunodeficiencies and gastrointestinal cancers, where fungi contribute to pathologies. Current effort in the laboratory, focused on the gut-bran axis and cancer, explores the unique neuro-modulatory and cancer-immunity modulating properties of fungi.

Dr. Iliev earned his PhD from the European School of Molecular Medicine and the University of Milan and was previously associated with the Tohoku University in Japan, LB Bulgaricum Plc., Meiji Co., Ltd and the Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Currently he is a Burroughs Wellcome Fund PATH Investigator, Irma T. Hirschl Scholar, Kenneth Rainin Foundation Innovator, Fellow at the Canadian Institute For Advanced Research (CIFAR) and a Cancer Research Institute Lloyd J. Old STAR Fellow.

SPEAKER SECTIONS

Mother and Infant Microbial Cross-talk

TBA

Multi-species Communities

TBA

Translation & Clinical Applications

TBA

Microbiome Metabolites and their Functions

TBA

Microbial-host Interactions

TBA

The 3rd Pittsburgh Rust Belt Microbiome Conference

November 7 – 8, 2024

University Club at the University of Pittsburgh

Please direct any questions to: Luisa Hiller at lhiller@andrew.cmu.edu or Cindy Vinkovich at vinkovichc@upmc.edu

HOSTS

Georgios Kitsios, M.D., Ph.D.

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Luisa Hiller, Ph.D.

Carnegie Mellon University

Barbara Methé, Ph.D.

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Alison Morris, M.D., M.S.

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Definitions:
Rust Belt: An area of the north United States historically known for heavy industry and steel production.
Rust Belt Microbiome: A cutting-edge conference named to commemorate the rise of Science and Medicine as emerging economic drivers in the Rust Belt region. The outstanding programs in microbiome or host-pathogen research highlight new forces in our region to improve human health, advance novel technology, and develop entrepreneurship. Our conference is designed to celebrate the past and the future of our thriving and vital area.