SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 29, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- uBiome, the leader in microbial genomics, announces the addition of Dr. Wendy Garrett, MD, PhD, Professor of Immunology and Infectious Disease in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, to its Medical Advisory Board. Joining the board of leading scientists and doctors from around the world, Dr. Garrett will bring to uBiome expertise in the interplay between gastrointestinal immune system and the gut microbiota in health, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and colorectal cancer (CRC). The appointment will help uBiome continue its advancement in human microbiome research.
"Dr. Garrett's objective to understand the interaction between the microbiota, chronic inflammation, and cancer has important implications for the accepted understanding of health and wellbeing," Dr. Jessica Richman, PhD, co-founder and CEO of uBiome, said. "Her addition to our board of medical advisors is invaluable in advancing uBiome's mission to advance the science of the microbiome and make it useful to people."
Dr. Garrett is a professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases, and Associate Professor of Medicine at the Harvard School of Medicine and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Her lab focuses on how particular species, pathways, and metabolites made by the gut microbiota influence immune homeostasis and disease. Dr. Garrett is a member of Cancer Immunology and Gastrointestinal Malignancies in the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center, which facilitates collaboration across five academic medical institutions and two Harvard health science schools.
About joining uBiome's Medical Advisory Board, Dr. Garrett said, "Understanding the microbiota, including its members and their features, function, and interactions, may transform how we conceptualize how healthy bodies become diseased, how aging leads to infirmity, why some benefit from certain lifestyle changes and medications and others do not, and how we might alter our internal and external ecosystem to prevent and treat a vast range of conditions."
In addition to Dr. Garrett, 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 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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