Page 16 - MDC Abstract Book & Guide

James R. Brown GlaxoSmithKline
James (Jim) Brown, is Director and Senior Fellow in Computational Biology, Human Genetics for GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceutical R&D, Collegeville, Pennsylvania where he leads bioinformatic teams in multiple therapy areas including infectious and immunity-related diseases. He coordinates research efforts in the microbiome and applied human genetics to identify novel targets. Jim received a B.Sc. Marine Biology from McGill University and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Simon Fraser University. He then received a Medical Research Council of Canada Post-doctoral Fellowship with Dr. W. Ford Doolittle, Dalhousie University. With over 23 years of pharmaceutical R&D experience, he has 110 publications and served on multiple academic and industrial panels.
Presentation Title
Integrative Analyses of Human and Microbial Multi-omics Datasets for Drug Discovery
Abstract
The microbiome, the collective genomic and metabolic potential of the gut microbiota, has a key role in many chronic diseases through its mitigation of host immune-inflammatory responses. Communication between the human gut microbiome and its host is mediated by specific metabolites produced by microbial metabolism. Growing evidence suggests that these metabolites play important roles in human health, however identification of specific metabolite-receptor ligand pairings and characterization of their phenotypic effects is challenging. This presentation will discuss chemogenomics analytics to identify putative human host and microbiome interactions as potential biomarkers and drug targets using multiple biological and chemical datasets.
Chris Ellis Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Chris Ellis is a senior staff scientist Oak Ridge National Laboratory and executive director of the Microbiome of Idiopathic Neurodegenerative Diseases (MIND) consortium. Chris has pioneered a number of new methodologies in microbiome research including developing the first tools to explore the eukariome with next generation sequencing. As a computational microbiologist he is focused on devolving computational tools coupled new wet lab methodologies to explore the functional role of the microbiome in neurodegenerative disease and cancer. Currently, he is leading the MIND consortium which is a multi-institutional effort to explore the role of the microbiome in the onset and progression Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, and ALS. His lab is applying machine learning and explainable AI in these diseases to better understand the causative agents of neurodegenerative disease.
Presentation Title
Exploring the Functional Role of the Microbiome in Neurodegenerative Disease