BME 7900 Seminar - Harris Wang, PhD

Description

Our last guest speaker for our Fall semester is Dr. Harris Wang from Columbia University, where he is an Assistant Professor of Systems Biology. Mapping and Modifying the Gut Microbiome Abstract: Microbes that colonize the gastrointestinal tract play important roles in host metabolism, immunity, and homeostasis. Better tools to study and alter the microbiome is essential to unlocking its vast potential for improving human health. This talk will describe our recent efforts to develop next-generation characterization and manipulation methods for the gut microbiome. Specifically, I will discuss platforms for automated culturomics of gut bacteria, spatiotemporal metagenomics of the microbiome, and in situ manipulation of native communities within the mammalian gut. These emerging capabilities provide a foundation to accelerate the development of microbiome-based products and therapies. Bio: Harris Wang is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University jointly appointed in the Department of Systems Biology and the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology. Dr. Wang received his B.S. degrees in Mathematics and Physics from MIT and his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard University. His research group mainly develops enabling genomic technologies to characterize the mammalian gut microbiome and to engineer these microbes with the capacity to monitor and improve human health. Dr. Wang is an Investigator of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the recipient of numerous awards, including the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, NSF CAREER, Sloan Research Fellowship, ONR Young Investigator, Schaefer Scholars, and Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Science. In early 2017, Dr. Wang received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from President Obama, which is “the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers." http://wanglab.c2b2.columbia.edu/