2023 CBBRe Research Symposium

Dr. Giesbrecht is a registered Clinical Psychologist in the province of Alberta and Professor in the Departments of Paediatrics and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary. His research program focuses on the psychobiology of stress, and especially on the effects of in utero and early life stress on child development. He is currently studying the effects of risk and resilience factors, such as adverse childhood experiences, nutrition, temperament, and the gut microbiota on children’s neurodevelopment and mental health outcomes. The overall objectives of his research program are to identify the mechanisms by which early life exposure to stress becomes biologically embedded in children’s development, to identify risk and resilience factors that modify the effects of early life stress exposure on children’s development, and to develop effective intervention and prevention strategies to prevent or reduce the effects of early life stress exposure on children’s development.

An accomplished pioneer in medical research focusing on the brain, gut, and microbiome, Dr. Gupta has a PhD degree in psychology after completing an APA accredited clinical internship at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical Center. Her current research focuses on the interactions between environmental and biological factors in shaping brain-gut microbiome signatures associated with stress-based diseases such as obesity. Broadly defined, this ground-breaking research aims to integrate two systems (the brain and the gut) in order to better understand the underlying mechanisms associated with obesity and altered consumption behaviors. This focus on obesity is key to a deeper understanding of the risk factors for many chronic diseases, and ones that disproportionately affect ethnic minorities and women. Backed by the National Instituted for Health (NIH), Dr. Gupta’s goal is to develop a comprehensive model that provides a powerful biomarker that will increase diagnostics around obesity in an effort to improve overall health outcomes.

Building on the success of her lab in the area of adversity and obesity, Dr. Gupta recently received a major grant from NIMHD (NIH) on the “Social Isolation and Discrimination as Stressors Influencing Brain-Gut Microbiome Alterations.” She has also received several industry funded grants as the Principal Investigator in addition to publishing over one hundred peer-reviewed articles, which have been featured in mainstream media outlets such as the Today Show, NBC, Science, and WebMD. These grants have allowed her to focus on the following main themes of research:

1. The Investigation of how novel pathways related to the brain-gut-microbiome (BGM) system may explain modulation of signals from the gut-microbiome on the brain via systemic immune activation.

2. Explanation of how risk factors associated with socio-cultural and environmental stressors “get under the skin” and are embedded in biology.

3. Identification of subgroup differences (e.g., race and sex) related to obesity.

4. Modeling longitudinal patterns and changes across the lifespan as they relate to obesity in order to help predict risk factors leading up to the development of obesity while being able to identify prognostic markers.

5. Determination of changes associated with various interventions (e.g., brain-targeted such as cognitive behavioral therapy, or gut-based such as specific diets) directed at altered eating behaviors and obesity.

The major focus of my laboratory is on host and gut microbiotal (intestinal bacteria) interactions, whose deregulation may often precipitate into metabolic and chronic diseases such as obesity, type II diabetes and liver diseases. For the last 12 years, my research demonstrated that the loss of innate immune function in TLR5-deficient (TLR5KO) mice resulted in gut dysbiosis, leading to the development of spontaneous colitis (Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2007) and hallmark features of metabolic syndrome including insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and hepatic steatosis (Science, 2010). The discovery of the link between gut microbiota and metabolic syndrome is a milestone in my career which drew lot of media attention and received more than 1050 citations so far. By using 1H NMR-based metabolomics, I unraveled that the metabolic syndrome in TLR5KO mice is, in part, promoted by a surfeit of microbiota-derived short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which unduly drives hepatic lipogenesis (Cell Metabolism, 2015). While SCFAs and their dietary fiber precursors are often regarded to be beneficial, my ongoing study now seeks to invigorate the concept that not all fibers are created nor fermented equally and that excessive intake of such fibers may not necessarily promote health in susceptible hosts. Enhancing gut microbiota fermentation activity by dietary fermentable fibers (e.g. inulin, pectin) induces hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a type of deadly liver cancer (Cell, 2018).  Further, we are investigating what dietary practices could result in gut microbiotal dysbiosis and under which circumstances our gut bacteria serve as friend or foe.

Ran Blekhman studies the human microbiome—the collection of all microbes that live in and on the human body—and how these microbes interact with our own genome and genes. His laboratory uses high-throughput genomics technologies and employs computational, statistical, machine learning, and population genetic analytical approaches, with the goal of understanding how we interact with our microbial communities, how host-microbe interactions affect human disease, and how the symbiosis between us and our microbiome evolved. His research has been published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, Nature Microbiology, PLOS Biology, Science, Cell, and eLife, among other journals. He was named a Sloan Research Fellow in the field of computational and evolutionary molecular biology, and a Scialog: Microbiome, Neurobiology, and Disease Fellow. Dr. Blekhman studied biology and computer science at Tel Aviv University and holds a PhD in human genetics from the University of Chicago. He was a postdoctoral research associate at Cornell University, and was faculty at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, where he was awarded a McKnight Land-Grant Professorship and recognized with a Northrop Professorship. In 2022, Dr. Blekhman moved to the University of Chicago, where he is an Associate Professor in the Section of Genetic Medicine.

In our studies with incarcerated people, we employ diagnostic clinical assessment instruments, self-report measures, and neuropsychological testing to examine the psychological mechanisms underlying of a number factors that relate to involvement with the judicial system (e.g., psychopathic and antisocial personality traits, history of childhood trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, drug and alcohol use). 

We also study neurobiological mechanisms underlying psychological processes of emotion processing and decision-making. We conduct studies with neurological and neurosurgical patients who have undergone dramatic changes in emotion, personality, and social behavior as a result of focal brain lesions. By associating specific areas of brain damage with specific changes in emotion, one can infer which brain areas are critically involved in affective function, and ultimately, which brain areas may be responsible for disorders of emotion, such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition to detailed mapping of the patient’s structural brain damage, we employ a range of assessment techniques that probe the patient’s emotional state as well as cognitive and psychosocial functions. Additionally, in collaboration with the Mind Research Network, we examine measures of brain structure and function in incarcerated individuals, which is made possible through a unique mobile MRI unit that we have previously deployed to state prisons.

Dr. Calliope Holingue is an assistant professor at the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at Kennedy Krieger Institute. She also has a joint academic appointment in the Department of Mental Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Holingue received a BA from UC Berkeley in Public Health and Molecular Cell Biology in 2013, before earning a MPH in epidemiology/biostatistics from UC Berkeley in 2015. That was followed by a PhD in mental health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2019 and a postdoctoral fellowship at Kennedy Krieger and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2021. Dr. Holingue’s research focuses on promoting the health of individuals with neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, especially autism, by studying the intersection of physical and mental health, particularly the gut-brain axis. She is also interested in identifying the role of early-life immune- and microbial-related exposures on the etiology of neuropsychiatric disorders. Dr. Holingue teaches two courses at Johns Hopkins: "Mental Health and the Gut" and "Public Health Approaches in Autism and Developmental Disabilities."

Yohaan received his BSc at the University of Toronto where he first proposed using zebrafish to model the behavioral deficits associated with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD).  He received his M.A. in Psychology and his Ph.D. in Cell and Systems Biology at University of Toronto where he continued to develop his zebrafish model of FASD. Yohaan completed his postdoc at the University of Texas at Austin where he expanded his model to begin to characterize the effects embryonic ethanol exposure has on genes and behavior. At USD he continues to be interested in understanding how genes & the environment interact to affect the developing brain and subsequent behavior to better understand the biological mechanisms responsible for the behavioral and cognitive defects associated with FASD. 

Samuel received his PhD in molecular physiology from the University of Notre Dame where he studied antifreeze proteins. He switched fields to pursue a postdoc at Yale Psychiatry and subsequently joined the faculty at Yale examining mechanisms of antidepressant action. In 2013 he moved to USD to start a neurovascular lab and recently changed his field of investigation to focus on trophic factors and cognitive function. The research is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health.

Lindsey Jorgensen is a Professor at the University of South Dakota where she teaches, does research, and sees patients clinically. Her area of research and clinic focus on the interaction between aging/cognitive decline due to dementia/TBI on the use and function of hearing assistive technology. She teaches courses in amplification, counseling, advanced diagnostics, hearing technology, and rehabilitation. Additionally, she serves as the Chair for the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders as well as the Clinic Director for the USD Speech and Hearing Clinics.

Kouadio Marc-Antoine Niamba is a graduate student currently completing a Ph.D. in Human Factor Psychology and a master's in Computer Science at the University of South Dakota. His research thus far has included work in pupillometry, physiological signal processing, and machine learning. His current work investigates the correlation between pupillary behavior and Event-Related Potential as a function of a user's selective attention. The goal of this study is the development of a novel Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) system that relies on pupillary activation (in the absence of gaze) as a selection method.