FIVM Series presents: Microbial Wall Street

Recent advances in high-throughput sequencing technology has led to greater understanding of the role of microbiome - the full collection of genes of all the microorganisms – in human and animals and the environment. The potential of microbiomes being used as therapeutic agents has resulted in growing interest among the agricultural and pharmaceutical industries, academia and government.  This, in turn, has resulted in a growing number of microbiome startups.

On Friday, November 23, Dr. Ehsan Khafipour will discuss how this interest has also resulted in rapid development of bioinformatic and biostatistical tools, as well as machine-learning techniques for the analyses of microbiome data. Dr. Khafipour will also talk about how microbiome-based ecosystem therapeutics (MET) can be used in developing alternatives to antibiotics for prevention and treatment of infectious diseases in food producing animals.

Dr. Ehsan Khafipour is an Associate Professor of Microbiology at the Department of Animal Science and Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Manitoba. He is also a Research Scientist at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba. 

Dr. Khafipour’s research uses cutting-edge sequencing technologies, combined with bioinformatics and statistical approaches to link the composition, function, and dynamics of microbiomes in the gut, vaginal tract, and mammary system with the individuals’ diet, environment, and health/disease status. His goal is to move from the current “one-size fits all” recommendations for prevention and treatment of metabolic disorders and infectious diseases in food-producing animals toward personalized/precision nutrition and veterinary medicine.