uBiome Appoints Dr. Amir Zarrinpar, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Gastroenterology at UC San Diego, to its Medical Advisory Board

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 03, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- uBiome, the leader in microbial genomics, announces the addition of Dr. Amir Zarrinpar, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at UC San Diego and staff gastroenterologist at the VA San Diego Medical Center, to its Medical Advisory Board. Joining the board of leading scientists and doctors from around the world, Dr. Zarrinpar will bring to uBiome expertise in circadian biology and the gut microbiome in gut-mediated diseases. The appointment will help uBiome continue its advancement in human microbiome research.

"Dr. Zarrinpar is an esteemed researcher who has spent years studying the role of the microbiome in chronic disease and other physiological processes," Dr. Jessica Richman, PhD, co-founder and CEO of uBiome, said. "We are thrilled to bring him on as a medical advisor here at uBiome."

Dr. Zarrinpar is an assistant professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and a faculty member in the Center for Microbiome Innovation and the Clinical and Translational Research Institute at UC San Diego. He is also a staff gastroenterologist at the VA San Diego Medical Center. His UCSD-based lab is interested in the intersection of the gut microbiome, gut signaling, and host physiology and behavior, specifically studying key mediators that link the microbe-gut-brain axis and affect behavior and cognition, and modulate neuroinflammation. Dr. Zarrinpar is the co-founder of Tortuga Biosciences, a company that manipulates the microbiome to deliver therapeutic interventions to treat chronic disease. He has been awarded the American Gastroenterological Association Microbiome Junior Investigator Research Award (2014-2016), the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases Liver Scholar Award (2014-2017), and the American Federation of Aging Research Junior Faculty Research Grant (2017-2019), among others.

About joining uBiome's Medical Advisory Board, Dr. Zarrinpar said, "I'm thrilled to be joining the medical advisory board of a company that can play such a vital role in improving healthcare. I've had a long-standing interest in determining how the gut microbiome can help guide therapeutic interventions (that is, precision medicine), and I'm excited to be working with uBiome to make this a reality."

In addition to Dr. Zarrinpar, the uBiome Scientific Advisory Board also includes Dr. Joseph DeRisi (MacArthur Genius and UCSF professor), Dr. Atul Butte (head of the Institute for Computational Health Sciences at UCSF), Dr. Katherine Pollard (Director, Gladstone Institute for Data Science and Biotechnology), Dr. Joel Palefsky (UCSF School of Medicine professor), Dr. George Church (leading geneticist at Harvard University), Dr. Liz Lipski (Academic Director of Nutrition and Integrative Health Programs at Maryland University of Integrative Health), Dr. Elaine Hsiao, PhD (UCLA), and other leading scientists. The company's Medical Advisory Board includes Dr. Alan Green (Society for Participatory Medicine), Dr. Leo Treyzon (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center), Dr. Cynthia Geyer (Medical Director of Canyon Ranch, Lenox), Dr. Robynne Chutkan (Georgetown University Hospital), Michael Docktor (Boston Children's Hospital), Dr. Tiffany Lester (Medical Director of Parsley Health in San Francisco), Dr. Joel Kahn (Founder of the Kahn Center for Cardiac Longevity), as well as other accomplished clinicians.

About uBiome
Founded in 2012, uBiome is the leader in microbial genomics. The Company's mission is to advance the science of the microbiome and make it useful to people. uBiome combines its patented proprietary precision sequencing™ with machine learning and artificial intelligence to develop wellness products, clinical tests, and therapeutic targets. uBiome has filed for over 250 patents on its technology, which includes sample preparation, computational analysis, molecular techniques, as well as diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

uBiome's commercial products include SmartGut™, the world's first sequencing-based clinical microbiome test, which identifies microbes in the gut for patients with chronic gut conditions such as IBD, IBS, Crohn's Disease, and ulcerative colitis; SmartJane™, the first sequencing-based women's health screening test, which genotypes all 19 clinically relevant strains of HPV, identifies four common STDs, and surveys more than 20 vaginal microbes associated with bacterial vaginosis and other conditions; and Explorer™, a health and wellness product to understand the role that food and lifestyle can play in wellness.

uBiome's platform has been used by hundreds of thousands of consumers, patients, and doctors and more than 200 research institutions around the world, including the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Harvard University, Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of California, San Francisco, Oxford University, and the University of Sydney.

Since its launch, the company has received widespread recognition including CNN 10: Startups to Watch, the IVY Technology Award, CNN Future 30, and was named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in Healthcare in 2016 and in Data Science in 2018, as well as a Technology Pioneer from the World Economic Forum in 2018. For more information, visit http://www.uBiome.com.

SOURCE Ubiome

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