Steering Committee

STEERING COMMITTEE CHAIR

University of Utah

June Round is the H.A. and Edna Benning endowed chair in pathology at the University of Utah, in Salt Lake City, Utah, US. While most people view our interactions with microbes through the lens of pathogenesis, most human interactions with microbes result in benign or even beneficial reactions.  Thus, the goal of the research in the Round lab is to uncover the relevant microbes that confer these benefits and understand the mechanistic underpinnings of these relationships so that we can harness the power of the microbiota for therapeutics. 

PROFESSOR, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Northern Arizona University

Greg Caporaso is a microbiome expert, having published over 100 papers on the human microbiome, environmental microbiomes, and microbiome bioinformatics. He leads the development of the popular QIIME microbiome bioinformatics platform.

STEERING COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRMAN

Cumming Capital Management

David Cumming is an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist from Salt Lake City, Utah. David is the Chairman of the Cumming Foundation, his family’s charitable arm, which does granting and Impact Investing.

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

University of Utah

Nikki is the Executive Assistant for Dr. Jensen in the Department of Pathology and supports MAGIC and MoWMA.

RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

Internal Medicine / MAGIC, University of Utah

Nicole is the Administrative Director for MAGIC and supports all aspects of the research mission for the department of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah.

PROFESSOR, INTERNAL MEDICINE

University of Utah

Daniel Leung uses cell culture, animal, clinical, and population-base models to study host-microbe interactions of mucosal infections, with a hope towards improving our understanding of the immunology, microbiology, epidemiology, and clinical management of diarrheal disease.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, MEDICINE

University of Colorado - Anschutz

Catherine Lozupone integrates bioinformatics applications and novel tool development with experimental validation to understand microbiome composition and microbe:immune interactions in a variety of disease contexts. Current emphasis is on metabolic co-morbidity in HIV-infected individuals and role of diet and microbiome in Clostridioides difficile infection recurrence.

PROFESSOR, PATHOLOGY

University of Utah

Ryan O’Connell’s research program is focused on studying the roles of noncoding RNAs in both physiological and pathological immune responses in mammals. This includes regulation of host-microbe interactions within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, as well as inter-kingdom crosstalk via extracellular vesicles and their RNA cargo.

PROFESSOR, MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY

Montana State University

Seth Walk is interested in how the human gut microbiome promotes health. Our projects investigate temporal microbiome dynamics and migration, detoxification of environmental toxicants like arsenic and methylmercury, development of live biotherapeutic products, and the microbiome’s role in neurodegeneration.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, PATHOLOGY

University of Utah

Brian Webster is the Associate Director for the Department of Pathology, supporting MAGIC and MoWMA activities.

DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT

University of Utah

Alex Phillips leads the advancement efforts for the University of Utah Health’s 3i Initiative, MAGIC, and MoWMA as well as several departments in Internal Medicine.