Missing gut microbes (and where to find them)
As part of our Monday seminar series, we are delighted to welcome our speaker:
Talk title: Missing gut microbes (and where to find them)
Dr. Emma Allen-Vercoe PhD
Professor and Canada Research Chair
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
University of Guelph
Hosted By
Dr. Jason Fish & Dr. Stephen Girardin
How to join
The event will be in person only, no need to register.
MSB 2170
Medical Sciences Building
University of Toronto
1 King’s College Circle
Toronto, ON M5S 1A8
Details are sent to the LMP community in the Friday events bulletin.
If you have any questions about this event, please contact lmp.seminars@utoronto.ca.
Speaker: Dr. Emma Allen-Vercoe PhD
Emma obtained her BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of London, and her PhD in Molecular Microbiology through an industrial partnership with Public Health England. Emma started her faculty career at the University of Calgary in 2005, with a Fellow-to-Faculty transition award through CAG/AstraZeneca and CIHR, to study the normal microbes of the human gut. In particular, she was among the few that focused on trying to culture these ‘unculturable’ microbes in order to better understand their biology. To do this, she developed a model gut system to emulate the conditions of the human gut and allow communities of microbes to grow together, as they do naturally. Emma moved her lab to the University of Guelph in late 2007 and has been a recipient of several Canadian Foundation for Innovation and associated awards that have allowed her to develop her specialist anaerobic fermentation laboratory further. She is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Human Gut Microbiome Function and Host Interactions, and co-founder of NuBiyota, a research spin-off company that aims to create therapeutic ecosystems as biologic drugs, on a commercial scale. Her work on culturing gut microbiomes has expanded from humans to encompass other animal microbiomes, including horses, fish and bees. Recently, she has received funds to establish MiPAC – the Microbial Preservation and Culture centre – at the University of Guelph, with a vision to provide microbial and microbiome culture services to the Canadian research community and beyond.
