Program
“Understanding the microbiome may transform our understanding of how healthy bodies become diseased, how aging leads to infirmity, and how we could alter our internal ecosystems to prevent and treat a vast range of conditions.”
– Michelle A. Williams, Former Dean, Harvard Chan School
Email
hcmph@hsph.harvard.edu
Location
677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115
Program
For information, please contact Nicole Levesque (levesque@hsph.harvard.edu)
More information is available on the main Symposium Page.
May 18, 2026
(All times below are EDT)
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Also available via Zoom
| 8:30 – 8:45 | Welcome & Introduction |
| 8:45 – 9:00 | Opening Remarks Eric Rubin, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine |
| 9:00 – 10:00 | James Collins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology “Microbiome-friendly medicine: engineering live therapeutics and AI-designed antibiotics” |
| 10:00 – 10:30 | Laura Cox, Brigham and Women’s Hospital “Dissecting strain-specific roles of the gut microbiome in neurologic diseases” |
| 10:30 – 10:45 | Kyoo Heo, Brigham and Women’s Hospital “A symbiont-derived glycosphingolipid enhances aerotolerance to enable neonatal gut colonization” |
| 10:45 – 11:00 | Short Talk |
| 11:00 – 11:30 | Break |
| 11:30 – 12:00 | Robert Britton, Baylor College of Medicine “The impact of the infant microbiome on brain development and cognition” |
| 12:00 – 12:30 | Jose Clemente, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai “A tale of two trials: microbiome interventions in early life” |
| 12:30 – 2:00 | Lunch Break |
| 2:00 – 2:15 | Short Talk |
| 2:15 – 2:30 | Amanda Darling, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health “Biofilm Contributions of Bacterial Pathogens and Antimicrobial Resistance Genes to Wastewater Surveillance Signal at the Hospital Scale” |
| 2:30 – 2:45 | Wakaka Okuda, Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, & Harvard “A Dual Antibiotic-Metabolite-based Approach to Improve Bacterial Vaginosis Treatment“ |
| 2:45 – 3:15 | Break |
| 3:15 – 3:45 | Jean McGee, Brigham and Women’s Hospital “The gut feeling behind healthy skin: Expanding the role of the gut microbiome in dermatology” |
| 3:45 – 4:45 | Michael Fischbach, Stanford University “Commensal vaccines” |
| 4:45 – 5:00 | Closing Remarks |
| 5:00 – 6:30 | Poster Reception (also available online all day) |