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Microbiology, Pathology, immunology, and biomedical engineering Expert Dr. Dantes trusts his gut and that’s what we get into in this episode – the gut biome, microbiome ecology, and more. On the fun, personal side, we get into his passion for bow-ties, min/maxing micro-brewing, and have great discussions on history, microbiology and even a few book recommendations at the end. This is one of my favorite interviews. You’re going to want to check this out! Please share and tell your friends.
Dr. Gautam Dantas
Brief Bio (long bio below): Professor of Pathology & Immunology, Biomedical Engineering, and Microbiology, at Washington University in St. Louis. Additionally, a co-founder of Viosera Therapeutics
“Dr. Dantas and the Dantas Lab studies the ecology, evolution and transmission dynamics of microbes and their antibiotic resistance genes across multiple habitats, towards building better predictive models of resistance selection and dissemination. He conducts such investigations in both resource-rich and resource-poor settings in the U.S., Central America, South America and Africa, to elucidate the impact of features such as geography, cultural traditions, access to clean water, food and health care, population density, and disease endemicity on the exchange of microbes and their resistance genes between interconnected ecologies. ”
“He is also interested in understanding the mechanism of antibiotic-mediated rescue from malnutrition in pediatric populations in extremely low-income countries, towards developing alternative therapies which may achieve the same benefits but without the collateral harm caused by antibiotic use.” Source
The long bio:
“My research interests and training lie at the interface of microbial genomics, biochemistry, systems biology, and computational biology. I received my PhD in biochemistry from the University of Washington under the mentorship of David Baker, and post-doctoral training in microbial genomics from Harvard Medical School under the mentorship of George Church. Research in my lab is currently focused (1) on understanding the evolution and exchange of antibiotic resistance amongst diverse microbial communities, (2) on systems-guided design of novel antibiotic and probiotic therapies, and (3) on engineering microbial catalysts to produce value chemicals such as biofuels. My publication record includes 8 papers in Science, Nature, and Cell and 3 patents in biotechnology. I lead an interdisciplinary research and training group of basic scientists, engineers, and clinicians, spanning formal expertise in microbiology, biochemistry, genomics, pathology, infectious diseases, pediatrics, ecology and evolution, systems biology, biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, and computational biology. In addition to my research efforts, I am deeply committed to graduate education and training. I am the co-Director of the Computational & Systems Biology (CSB) graduate program, have served on the steering committee for both the CSB and Molecular Microbiology & Microbial Pathogenesis graduate programs, regularly teach in three graduate-level courses, and serve or have served on over 70 qualifying exam and thesis committees.
Over the past nine years, I have mentored ten postdoctoral fellows, twenty graduate students, four research technicians, and over 50 high-school and undergraduate interns. I have graduated nine PhD students, two of whom are now faculty at University of Kansas Medical Center and at Cayetano Heredia University in Peru, three of whom are in post-doctoral training positions in Seattle and St. Louis, and four of whom are working at biotech companies in Boston and in St. Louis. Three of my postdoctoral mentees are faculty members at North Carolina State Univ. (Raleigh), Northwestern University (Evanston), and Washington Univ. School of Medicine (St. Louis). I am the principal investigator on projects supported by federal and private agencies, and am committed to providing a nurturing, well-supported, and actively mentored environment for my team. More details about our research can be found at: http://www.dantaslab.org/research” Source
About Viosera Therapeutics
“Antibiotic resistance has made it necessary to develop better treatments for deadly infections. Our St. Louis team is taking on this challenge.”