Speakers

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Anna Edlund, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI). Her specific expertise is in the use of molecular and computational approaches (omics) to study complex microbial communities, such as those residing in the human oral cavity and the gut. She is currently exploring molecular mechanisms underlying a healthy gut microbiota. She is particularly interested in understanding the role of cooperative interactions between groups of closely related bacteria in gut health. Dr. Edlund believes that a deeper knowledge of these mechanisms will provide knowledge on how to develop new therapeutics and prophylactic approaches, such as probiotics, that can prevent gut inflammation and other intestinal or systemic disease phenotypes. She earned a PhD in Microbiology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, Sweden. Dr. Edlund held postdoctoral fellowship positions at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where she studied ecology and evolution of small molecules, and at JCVI, where she was introduced to studies of the human microbiota. She has held an adjunct professorship at the University of California San Diego’s Department of Pediatrics since 2018.

Hyun (Michel) Koo, PhD is a dentist-scientist trained in food engineering, microbiology, and cell biology. He is a professor in the School of Dental Medicine and the founding director of the Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania, an inter-school research center that bridges clinicians, scientists, and engineers to study disease mechanisms and develop affordable therapies and diagnostics focused on susceptible populations. He is also the program director of a new NIDCR T90R90 post-doctoral training program for career development at the interface of engineering and oral-craniofacial sciences. His research focusses on understanding how biofilms cause oral diseases and seeking new therapeutic strategies. His group has employed engineering and computational approaches to study oral biofilms and has applied nanotechnology to develop antibiofilm nanoparticles targeting dental caries. Using small-scale robotics, his group developed microrobots capable of automated biofilm removal. He has published extensively in biomedical and multidisciplinary journals, including ACS Nano, Biomaterials, PNAS, Science, Nat Commun and Nature Reviews. He also holds several US and international patents. He is an elected AAAS fellow, the recipient of the IADR Distinguished Scientist and Innovation in Oral Care Awards, and STAT nationwide finalist for Best Innovations in Science and Medicine.

LOCAL SPEAKERS

Jodi Connell, PhD, is an Advanced Research Specialist in the Biosciences Group at 3M’s Corporate Research Materials Laboratory. Prior to joining 3M, she worked in Marvin Whiteley’s lab as a postdoctoral fellow studying antimicrobial resistance and quorum sensing after completing her PhD in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. Jodi has co-authored 12 peer-reviewed publications and is passionate about developing alternative solutions for microbial control.

Joshua Fletcher, PhD is a first generation college graduate and the only person in his family to pursue graduate level education. He started out at Southeastern Community College in West Burlington, Iowa, and after two years there, transferred to the University of Iowa where he obtained his BS. He stayed at UIowa to pursue a PhD in genetics, where he studied iron homeostasis in the bacterial pathogen Francisella tularensis. He then pursued postdoctoral studies at North Carolina State University, where he worked on the intersection of the gut microbiome and Clostridioides difficile pathogenesis. Josh is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Ryan Hunter's lab at the University of Minnesota.

Andrew Grenfell, PhD is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota in Dr. Jeff Gralnick‘s lab interested in understanding how bacteria of the intestinal microbiota colonize and persist within host animals. He was an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities earning degrees in Biochemistry and Genetics, Cell Biology and Development and received his Ph.D. from the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. After working for a Bay Area startup for a year after graduate school, Andrew moved back to Minnesota to continue his academic research and is currently studying how the specific metabolic and physiological characteristics of Shewanella – a bacterial genus – allow some species in this genus survive in the zebrafish intestinal tract.

Brittany Nairn, PhD is an Assistant Professor at Bethel University. She teaches Microbiology, Integrative Biology, Intro to Research, and supervises undergraduate student research for pre-dental and pre-medicine students. Her research interests are oral biofilms, influence of shear forces on biofilms, and biochemistry and function of cell wall proteins in S. gordonii. She earned her PhD at the University of North Carolina.

Meng Pu, PhD is a research fellow in Dr. Purna Kashyap’s lab at the Mayo Clinic. She is interested in dissecting the mechanisms by which C. difficile forms biofilms in the gut and downstream effects on gastrointestinal physiology. Dr. Pu earned her BSc in biology from Nanjing Agricultural University in China and a PhD in Biochemistry and MSc in Applied Statistics at Indiana University Bloomington, where she studied biofilm formation by the opportunistic human pathogen, Vibrio vulnificus.

Helen Vuong, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Pediatrics. Her lab is interested in dissecting the role of the microbiome in the development of neural circuits and behaviors in health and neurodevelopmental disorders. They use interdisciplinary approaches to identify and characterize the mechanisms of interaction between microbes and host neural cells. They use a longitudinal approach to track and investigate direct and long-term effects of microbially-derived molecules on brain development in utero and early postnatal life, and adult neural circuits. They aim to leverage the microbiome for diagnoses and therapeutic potential in neurodevelopmental disorders. She earned her PhD in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology at the University of California Los Angeles.

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