Event

Lecture Series One Earth: Impacts and countermeasures to global change and effects on the biosphere

  • Conférencier  Prof. Jack Gilbert

  • Lieu

    Ellipse Room – Maison du Livre – Luxembourg Learning Centre (LLC)

    7, Ënnert den Héichiewen

    L-4362, Esch-sur-Alzette, LU

Oceans and Human Health

Being jointly appointed between SIO and Pediatrics at UCSD my lab has a diverse research portfolio. Thematically our research is focused on the human microbiome in nutrition, disease and mental health, microbial ecology of the built environment, and marine microbial ecology in human and environmental health. While a lot of our work may not fit the traditional marine science, we do have programs that bridge the interface with a marine system focus. First, I will talk about our current research on understanding the emergence and transmission of coastal human bacterial pathogens. We are currently enumerating Vibrio spp in water and shellfish in the context of microbiomes, quantifying the vector potential of microplastics and ocean warming to increase the risk of foodborne illness. Second, we are currently exploring the impact of shellfish pathogens on the seafood industry by quantifying host and microbial responses to pathogen exposure under different temperature conditions (CaXc causing Abalone Withering Syndrome, OsHV-1 initiating Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome), and characterizing response of oyster microbiomes to differing environments. The role of the microbiome in ocean and human health is complex and convoluted, but understanding how people are influencing the oceans and what impacts those changes may have on human health is vital to the proper stewardship of our marine ecosystems. 

About the speaker

Professor Jack A Gilbert earned his Ph.D. from Unilever and Nottingham University, UK in 2002, and received his postdoctoral training at Queens University, Canada. From 2005-2010 he was a senior scientist at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, UK; and from 2010-2018 he was Group Leader for Microbial Ecology at Argonne National Laboratory, a Professor of Surgery, and Director of The Microbiome Center at University of Chicago. In 2019 he moved to University of California San Diego, where he is a Professor in Pediatrics and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Dr. Gilbert uses molecular analysis to test fundamental hypotheses in microbial ecology. He cofounded the Earth Microbiome Project and American Gut Project. He has authored more than 300 peer reviewed publications and book chapters on microbial ecology. He is the founding Editor in Chief of mSystems journal. In 2014 he was recognized on Crain’s Business Chicago’s 40 Under 40 List, and in 2015 he was listed as one of the 50 most influential scientists by Business Insider, and in the Brilliant Ten by Popular Scientist. In 2016 he won the Altemeier Prize from the Surgical Infection Society, and the WH Pierce Prize from the Society for Applied Microbiology for research excellence. In 2019 he was elected to the Philosophical Society of Washington. He also co-authored “Dirt is Good” published in 2017, a popular science guide to the microbiome and children’s health.  He serves on the board of the Genomic Standards Consortium and is the primary investigator for various research ventures, including the Earth Microbiome Project, the Home Microbiome Project, the Gulf Microbial Modeling Project, the Hospital Microbiome Project, and the Chicago River Microbiome Project.    Additionally, he founded BiomeSense Inc in 2018 to produce automated microbiome sensors.

The One Earth lecture series is financially supported by the National Research Fund (FNR, RESCOM/2022/SR/16983801) and the Luxembourg Society for Microbiology (LSfM).