Speakers
Research Presentations
This session explores how early-life microbiomes develop and why they matter. Dr. Justine Debelius uses computational methods to study the gut microbiome across a range of conditions, but her current research focuses on how microbial communities form in early childhood and how this influences long-term health outcomes. Drawing on insights from conditions like necrotizing enterocolitis and neurodegenerative disease, she brings a systems view to the microbial ecology of human development. The session will also touch on the value of open-source tools in microbiome research, including her contributions to the QIIME 2 platform, and what it means to make microbiome science more accessible, equitable, and responsive to diverse contexts.
Dr. Justine Debelius is interested in the relationship between the human gut microbiome (the bacteria that lives in, on, and around us) and how that relationship shapes health and disease using computational methods. Her focus is more broadly on the gut microbiome as an enviroment than on a specific disease or class of diseases, and she has worked on conditions ranging from necrotizing enterocolitis in infants to a virally associated cancer in adults to Parkinson's disease. However, Justine's current research focuses on the development of the microbiome in young children, and how this will seed them for long term health. Additionally, Justine is interested in how open source tools can be used to democratize microbiome research, and to this end, she is a regular contributor to the QIIME 2 software project.