Microbiome Connect: Animal 2022

Aaron Schacht

Prior to this role, Mr. Aaron Schacht was the Vice President of Global Research and Development / Regulatory Affairs at Elanco Animal Healthheld. Before that, he held the role of Global Brand Development Leader – Pain in Lilly Biomedicines. He was the global leader for product development and commercialization activities for LY2951742 – Lilly’s novel CGRP neutralizing antibody – a new potential treatment for prevention of Migraine and Cluster Headache. In 2012, Schacht joined Lilly Biomedicines as Senior Advisor – Strategy & Business Development for Lilly BioMedicines. His responsibilities included oversight of Therapeutic Strategy development, R&D Portfolio Management, and Business Development for Lilly BioMedicines – Lilly’s largest business unit. Past roles included serving as Executive Director, Global External R&D, at Eli Lilly and Company, where he was responsible for implementation of strategies which aim to leverage novel approaches to external partnerships to augment Lilly’s access to pharmaceutical innovation as well as Executive Director of LRL (Lilly Research Labs) Strategy, Portfolio Management and Project Management where he was responsible for strategic planning, R&D portfolio and project management. Prior to these roles, he was Director, Innovation Center in the eLilly organization where he focused on the exploration, incubation and implementation of new business models and capabilities relevant to the strategic evolution of the pharmaceutical industry. In 2002, during a short leave from Lilly, Mr. Schacht was co-founder, President and CEO of Artesian Therapeutics, a Gaithersburg, MD cardiovascular drug discovery start-up. Mr. Schacht began his career at Lilly in 1990 as a medicinal chemist, and spent 5 years in the laboratory working to discover pharmaceuticals to treat cardiovascular disorders. Schacht studied Organic chemistry at the University of Illinois, receiving his Bachelors of Science degree in 1990.

Jirayu ‘Boo-Boo’ Tanprasertsuk, PHD

Boo Boo received his PhD in Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition at Tufts University. He was trained as a nutrition researcher with a focus on examining the relationship between dietary intake, nutrition status, and healthy aging in humans. At Nom Nom, his role has shifted to the investigation of nutrition and health in companion animals, including the impact of gut microbiome on health maintenance and personalized nutrition.

Chris Belnap

Alain Labbé, PhD

Jennifer Radosevich

Dr. Jennifer Radosevich is Worldwide Director of Research at Hill’s Pet Nutrition where she is responsible for leading the early research team to develop and accelerate new technologies for Hill’s products. She oversees the Nutrition Innovation, Bioinformatics and Research Laboratories teams to further research platforms including nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics, metabolomics, and microbiomics. She completed her PhD in Biochemistry/ Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology at Iowa State University and has over 25 years industry experience leveraging innovation to further business goals in the agribusiness, human and pet food markets.

Joe Bartges

Dr. Joe Bartges is from West Virginia and a graduate of Marshall University.  After receiving his DVM in 1987 from the University of Georgia, he completed an internship and dual residency in internal medicine and nutrition and a PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1993.  He joined the faculty at the University of Georgia and in 1997 joined the faculty at the University of Tennessee where he remained until 2014.  At Tennessee, he was Professor of Medicine and Nutrition, held the Acree Endowed Chair of Small Animal Research, and served as department head.  He was internist, nutritionist, and academic director at Cornell University Veterinary Specialists in Stamford CT and was an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Medicine at Cornell University.  He joined the faculty at The University of Georgia in 2016 and is currently Professor of Medicine, Interventional Radiology, and Nutrition in the Department of Small Animal Medicine and Surgery.  He is board certified in small animal internal medicine and nutrition.  He is a past president of the American Society of Veterinary Nephrology and Urology. Dr. Bartges is known for his research and publications in veterinary nephrology and urology and nutrition.  He has published over 350 peer reviewed manuscripts, research abstracts, review articles, and book chapters and is the primary editor of Nephrology and Urology of Small Animals with Dr. Dave Polzin.  He has spoken at over 250 meetings.  He is focused on minimally invasive procedures, on pedagogy, and on clinical research in urinary tract diseases and nutrition.

Kevin Kessler

Ravi Sheth

Ravi Sheth is co-founder of Kingdom Supercultures, an ingredient and biotechnology company that designs and supplies a new class of natural ingredients (Supercultures) based on combinations of natural cultures. These Supercultures enable leading food, beverage and personal care manufacturers to create new products that are healthier, sustainable and natural. Ravi received his PhD from Columbia University as a Hertz and NSF fellow where his work studying the gut microbiome was published in top scientific journals including Science, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Methods and more. During his PhD, he also spent a summer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation working on childhood malnutrition. He received his undergraduate degree in bioengineering at Rice and where he cofounded an edtech startup, STEAMtrax, that was acquired by a public company. 

Emily Stein

Emily Stein, PhD. Founded Primal Health, LLC in 2017 to focus on improving the dental health of both humans and animals by producing oral microbiome modulation products. She has spent 12 years developing SMMRT technology at Primal Therapies, Inc., which is focused on using metabolic influences to re-engineer disease-causing bacterial biofilms into those that are health-promoting, to decrease inflammation and to improve outcomes. Prior to that, she spent 7 years as a research fellow at Stanford University in Rheumatology and Immunology focused on the neuro-endocrine-immune axis in autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases. She holds a Phd. in Microbiology from the University of California at Berkeley where she studied inter- and intra-cellular signalling pathways involved in stress response and community development in bacteria and received her B.S. in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Iowa where she studied the interaction between M. tuberculosis and innate immune cells

John Gregg

Mirja Huhtinen

With more than 22 years of experience in Animal Health Research and Development, Mirja contributed significantly to several novel pharmaceutical product authorizations for companion animals in EU and US.

She graduated in 1988 from Veterinary College in Helsinki and started her career as a Research Fellow at MTT Agrifood Research, where she worked at the stud farm and carried out research regarding equine reproduction and embryo transfer.Having completed herPhD in 1999, she joined the pharmaceutical industry.

Since 2005 she has been the Head of Animal Health in the joint (human and AH) Clinical R&D, and more recently the Director of Animal Health R&D at Orion Corporation, who  develops proprietary products for global markets. Our best known Animal Health brands are Domosedan, Dexdomitor, Domitor, Antisedan, and the new product for treatment of noise aversion in dogs, Sileo. In the microbiome area, we have been the forerunner with our competitive exclusion product, Broilact

Monika Proszkowiec- Welgarz Ph.D.

Linda Oyama

Dr. Linda Oyama is a Lecturer in Microbiomics at Queen's University Belfast, United Kingdom She has a substantial track record in publishing within the field of microbiology in relation to tackling key societal challenges including infectious diseases in the clinical and agricultural sectors. She is currently studying livestock gastrointestinal tract microbiomes, with a particular focus on understanding the evolution and dispersal of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Specifically, she has expertise in meta-‘omic approaches to study gut microbiomes for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance and the discovery of novel antimicrobials within livestock microbiomes to combat the challenges of AMR. In the last 6 years, Dr. Oyama's research has resulted in excellence in the design, implementation and analyses of multi-‘omic datasets, including metagenomics and metatranscriptomics, pioneering the combination of in-silico and wet-lab molecular microbiology approaches to escalate drug discovery research addressing the imminent AMR problem facing veterinary and human medicine.

Siobhan Bridglalsingh

Dr. Siobhan Bridglalsingh is from the twin islands of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She attended the School of Veterinary Medicine at The University of the West Indies in Trinidad and completed her DVM in 2005 after which, she was hired initially as a teaching assistant then later as an assistant lecturer in the department of Small Animal Medicine and Surgery. Her interest in veterinary education led her to completion of a Masters in Higher Education Teaching and Learning in 2016. One year later she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for a PhD program at The University of Georgia. After completion of the PhD in 2020, she returned to the School of Veterinary Medicine in Trinidad where she resumed her duties until she returned the University of Georgia to begin a residency in veterinary clinical nutrition in 2021. Dr. Bridglalsingh has presented her PhD research at the American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition Symposium 2020 and as a poster presentation in at the Global Animal Nutrition Summit 2020 for which she was awarded the prize for best poster in the category of new methodology. Her research focus is on advanced glycation end products, pet food processing and effects on companion animal health. After finishing the clinical nutrition residency program, Dr. Bridglalsingh’s future goals include attaining board certification as a veterinary nutritionist to provide clinical service in this area and to continue research into the effects of processing on nutrients and health in animals.

Ben Willing, PhD

Dr. Benjamin Willing is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Microbiology of Nutrigenomics at the University of Alberta.  He and his team have made important contributions in the understanding of microbes in intestinal development, inflammatory bowel disease, infection resistance, and metabolic health. His research group is working to understand both fundamental and applied questions in gut microbiology. Fundamental research includes identifying mechanisms through which specific core members of the microbiome regulate host physiology using germfree rodent and piglet models. Applied questions include utilizing diet and microbiome to shape immune development to support resistance to enteric pathogens and general disease resilience of poultry and swine.

Connie Rojas, PhD

Andres Gomez