Mallory Embree

Mallory’s entire career has focused on researching and developing new methodologies to study both natural and synthetic microbial communities. Her area of expertise centers around the integration of bioinformatics with multiple omics datasets, physiological measurements, and metabolic modeling to examine microbial communities from a species-centric perspective. She has studied microbial communities from a diverse range of environments beyond livestock, including liver-disease mouse models, human skin microbiomes, brewery wastewater digesters, slow-growing methanogenic alkane-degrading enrichments, and low-biomass deep subsurface sediments from the ocean gyres.
Together with her co-founder, Mike Seely, Mallory founded Ascus Biosciences in 2015 to discover, develop, and commercialize first-in-class endomicrobial products for the animal health & nutrition industries. Outside of her passion for microbial communities and microbial product development, Mallory spends a lot of her free time working on airplanes, hot-air balloons and doing yoga. Mallory received her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego.

About Ascus
Ascus Biosciences, based in San Diego, CA, is focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing first-in-class endomicrobial products for the animal health and nutrition industries. Founded in 2015, Ascus is pioneering the emerging science of endomicrobial ecology to illuminate microbial communities within animals, and the role they play in overall health and performance. Ascus has a broad pipeline of all-natural, endomicrobial products in development across livestock and companion animals. Galaxis is their lead product and could launch as early as 2018 in the dairy market.

Aline Rodrigues Hoffmann

Aline Rodrigues Hoffmann, DVM, MS, PhD, Diplomate American College of Veterinary Pathologists, Assistant Professor at the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, USA. She is one of the pathologists at the Dermatopathology Specialty Service offered by Texas A&M University. Her research is primarily focused on studying the bacterial and fungal microbiome in the skin of companion animals, and correlating microbiome changes with development and pathogenesis of skin diseases. Other aspects of her research include basic dermatopathology, pathogenesis of infectious diseases, and microbiology. She is the author and co-author of several articles describing the skin Microbiome in companion animals.  She has also been involved and dedicated to diagnostic pathology, and training of professional students and veterinary pathology residents. She is a member of the American Academy of Veterinary Dermatology, International Society of Veterinary Dermatopathology, American College of Veterinary Pathologists, and American Society of Microbiology. 

Amy Biddle

Amy Biddle earned her PhD in Microbiology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and continued with postdoctoral study with Dr Roderick Mackie at the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign. Her research focuses on the equine gut microbiome in health and disease.  The Biddle Lab launched the Equine Microbiome Project in 2015, the first large-scale survey of the equine gut microbiome. As a growing collection of gut microbe and horse health data, the EMP database is being used to identify patterns between the equine microbiome and factors such as age, diet, exercise, and metabolic state. Related projects in the Biddle Lab include in vitro experiments focusing on equine gut community function, and projects to survey equine gastrointestinal parasites, specifically taxa differences between small strongyles related to dewormer resistance.   

Dr. Yeoman

Dr. Yeoman’s research seeks to uncovering the various forces shaping the structure and function of host-associated microbial communities and understanding their impact on host nutrition, health and development. His work to date has focussed on the microbial communities associated with humans, wild and captive primates, and various agriculturally-important livestock species, including cattle and sheep and transcends gastrointestinal and reproductive tract niches. Dr Yeoman’s research employees multiple molecular methods and often involves longitudinal and biospatial analyses which he believes are critical to understanding the true impact of the microbiota.

Julie Veryser

Gary Tang

Based in Palo Alto, Gary focuses on growth equity investments across a wide range of sectors at Norwest including consumer, retail, internet and education. Gary’s current investments include Bailey44 and Topo Athletic. Gary was previously involved with Norwest’s investments in PCA Skin (acquired by Colgate-Palmolive), The Learning Experience (acquired by Golden Gate Capital), and Turnitin (acquired by Advance).

Dr. Vernon L. McIntosh Jr.

Steven Frese

Brett Morris

Michael Shields

I went to school for my undergraduate and graduate program at North Carolina State University. I finished in 2013 with a Ph.D. in Animal Science and Nutrition. I then worked for Cape Fear Consulting managing nutrition for several companies. I began working at Cactus Family Farms in 2015. I manage the nutrition program for 35,000 sows from farrow to finish. I currently reside in Raleigh, NC with my wife, Anna. 

Tim Johnson

Dr. Tim Johnson is a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Minnesota. He received his PhD in Molecular Pathogenesis from North Dakota State University in 2004, followed by postdoctoral studies at Iowa State University's College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Johnson joined the University of Minnesota's Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences in 2007. He has since developed an internationally-recognized research and outreach program focused on the genetic mechanisms enabling the spread of antibiotic resistance in Enterobacteriaceae. In tandem, his work focuses on the identification of antibiotic alternatives that manipulate the animal microbiome allowing for enhanced growth and reduced disease. Dr. Johnson has been working towards defining the baseline gut and respiratory microbiomes in chickens and turkeys, finding bacteria that correlate with enhanced performance, and developing alternative-to-antibiotic strategies using this knowledge. Tim also currently serves as Director of Research and Development at the Mid-Central Research and Outreach Center's Poultry Research Laboratory in Willmar, MN.

Scott Gustin, DVM, MAM

Scott is a native of Gloucester, Virginia growing up on a small family farm raising registered Angus and Hereford cattle.  He received his undergraduate and veterinary degrees at Virginia Tech in 1999 and 2002.  He went on to receive his Masters in Avian Medicine at the University of Georgia.  In 2004 he began his veterinary career at Cobb-Vantress in Siloam Springs.  While at Cobb his job functions included technical service for North America and Asia, internal veterinary service, and the World Director for Quality Assurance, focusing on Salmonella eradication programs.  For the past 6 years he has held the position of Director of Veterinary Services, Domestic Poultry, for Tyson Foods in Springdale, Arkansas.  

Jiangcho Zhao

My lab focuses on the roles that human and animal microbiome play in health and different diseases. We use interdisciplinary approaches such as multi-omics (e.g. metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metabolomics), bioinformatics, statistics, big data and mixed culture to, for example:

    Characterize and engineer gastrointestinal microbiome to promote human healthy aging, increase animal nutrient utilization and efficiency, production and well-being;

    Identify and apply prebiotics and probiotics to increase human and animal health and reduce antibiotics use;

    Study the ecology and evolution of human and animal microbiome;

    Identify airway microbiome biomarkers in human and animal respiratory diseases such as cystic fibrosis, COPD and Bovine Respiratory Disease for early and targeted therapy.

Brian Oakley

I am a microbial ecologist interested in tackling important problems at the interface of basic and applied research.  The revolution in high-throughput DNA sequencing has conclusively demonstrated the importance of microbial communities for life on earth.  Microbial ecology cuts across many fields and I have applied the tools and techniques of microbial ecology to disciplines ranging from oceanography to human and animal health.  My graduate training combined classical and microbial ecology but I only considered myself a microbiologist after working in the Microbiology Department of the University of Washington, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and the University of Warwick.  Four years as a research microbiologist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service gave me first-hand knowledge of the poultry industry and a chance to apply the tools and techniques of microbial ecology to veterinary microbiology.  Most of the current focus of my research is on the poultry microbiome and its relationships to food safety, infectious disease, and poultry nutrition.  Our standard toolkit combines field work with classical microbiology, microscopy, quantitative PCR, high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing, metagenomics, and associated bioinformatics.  We are currently funded through several intramural mechanisms, extramural grants, and industry partnerships.

Tim McAllister

Dr. Tim McAllister grew up on his parents’ cow/calf farm in Innisfail, AB. He obtained a B.Sc. (Agr) and M.Sc. from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and a Ph.D. (with distinction) in ruminant nutrition and microbiology from the University of Guelph, ON. He accepted an NSERC post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Calgary in 1991, and joined Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge, AB in 1992. Dr. McAllister has been a research scientist in Rumen Microbiology, Feed and Nutrition since 1997. His research focuses on microbiology, nutrition and beef production and on food and environmental safety issues related to livestock production, strategies for mitigation of Escherichia coli O157:H7, prion inactivation within the environment, and more recently, studies of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria in feedlots. He also has extensive research experience in GHG emissions within animals from manure and the impact of manure handling procedures, such as composting, on emissions. Dr. McAllister has conducted research to examine microbiological and nutritional approaches for mitigating ruminal methanogenesis, and emission of nitrous oxide and methane during composting, using strategies including the use of plant extracts, methanogen inhibitors and dietary formulations to limit methane production. He is the author or co-author of over 520 peer-reviewed scientific papers and 60 reviews, as well as 800 abstracts and conference proceedings, and over 100 final reports for collaborative research projects. Dr. McAllister has been recognized internationally for his leadership role and significant contributions to agricultural research and innovation in the areas of ruminant nutrition/microbiology and molecular biology as they apply to animal health, environmental health and food quality for the benefit of the agricultural industry in Alberta, Canada, and beyond.

Anna Skaya

Anna is the founder and CEO of Basepaws, a pet genetics company. Beyond working with pet owners across the world and caring about pet health, Anna is involved in many pet-related groups and event in her local Los Angeles. Her company Basepaws is helping bring visibility to feline health, and massively underfunded area of pet research. Using feline DNA to build animal models for studying disease in both pets and people is something Anna is really proud to be doing.