An insightful online event on Wed, Nov 22, 2023, at 13:00 - 14:00 GMT, discussing how gut microbiome plays a crucial role in child development and health issues such as stunted growth. The discussions will provide insights into the fascinating and complex universe of the infant gut microbiome. Discover how this intricate ecosystem is pivotal in an infant's health and development.
Help audiences understand the connections between infant nutrition, breastfeeding, and healthy gut microbiome development. Discussions will also identify the obstacles and roadblocks that can disrupt a healthy gut microbiome in infants.
Key speakers Alan Walker and Lindsay Hall will share insights and experiences on research, best practices, and policy perspectives that can benefit infants and their families.
SPEAKERS
Lindsay Hall, Chair of Microbiome Research, University of Birmingham
Prof Lindsay Hall has recently been appointed as the Chair of Microbiome Research at the University of Birmingham, and she is also a Wellcome Investigator. The lab’s research focus involves defining microbe/microbiota interactions during the early life developmental window.
She obtained a BSc in Microbiology from the University of Glasgow a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Cambridge (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute). She was a postdoctoral fellow at University College Cork, Ireland (APC Microbiome Institute).
She returned to the UK to take a Lectureship at the University of East Anglia before moving to the Quadram Institute at the end of 2015. Before joining Birmingham, Lindsay was Chair of Intestinal Microbiome at the Technical University of Munich, Germany.
Alan Walker, Senior Research Fellow, Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen; Theme Lead Gut Microbiome UKRI GCRF Action Against Stunting Hub
Alan is a microbiologist by training with specific research interests in the bacteria that inhabit the gastrointestinal tract of mammalian hosts.
After receiving an undergraduate degree in Microbiology from the University of Aberdeen, he completed his PhD at the Rowett Institute and the University of Dundee, specialising in gut microbiology and intestinal bacteria's role in the breakdown of dietary fibre.
He spent eight and a half years at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, a renowned centre for genomics research. While there, he used state-of-the-art DNA sequencing facilities to characterise host-associated microbial communities better and shed light on the roles these microbes play both in health and in diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis, inflammatory bowel disease and infection with Salmonella spp. and Clostridium difficile.
He is now a Senior Lecturer/Principal Investigator at the Rowett Institute at the University of Aberdeen. In his lab, the team combines anaerobic microbiology with DNA sequencing technologies to examine interactions between host diet and the intestinal microbiota of humans and animals and how these factors may contribute to host health.
Event details
When: 22 November, 2023 - 1:00 pm
Where: Zoom