Students, both near and far
Laura (VanArendonk) Blanton, PhD ’16, was a doctoral student in Gordon’s lab; today, she is a postdoctoral researcher at MIT’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
Lynn Bry, MD ’98, PhD ’98, was a doctoral student in Gordon’s lab; today, she is an associate professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School.
Mark Charbonneau, PhD ’15, was a doctoral student in Gordon’s lab. Today, he is a research scientist at Matatu, Inc., a St. Louis–based biotechnology company focused on the role of the microbiome in animal health. Gordon is a co-founder of the company.
Per Falk, MD/PhD, was a postdoctoral fellow in Gordon’s lab; today, he is chief scientific officer and executive vice president at Ferring Pharmaceuticals SA, a European biopharmaceutical company.
Ruth Ley, PhD, was a postdoctoral fellow in Gordon’s lab; today, she is director of the Department of Microbiome Science at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Germany.
Vanessa Ridaura, PhD ’13, was a doctoral student in Gordon’s lab; today, she is a genomics scientist at Verily Life Sciences, originally founded by Google.
Sathish Subramanian, PhD ’15, recently completed his doctoral dissertation in Gordon’s lab and is currently earning his medical degree as part of Washington University’s Medical Scientist Training Program.
Peter Turnbaugh, PhD ’09, was a doctoral student in Gordon’s lab; today, he is an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.
Faculty collaborators
Michael Barratt, PhD, executive director of the Center for Gut Microbiome and Nutrition Research in the Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology, is working with investigators at the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research in Bangladesh (icddr,b) to test the effectiveness of next-generation therapeutic foods in repairing gut microbiota immaturity in malnourished children.
Andrew Heath, PhD, the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, conducts long-running studies of twins.
Samuel Klein, MD, the William H. Danforth Professor of Medicine and Nutritional Science, studies obesity and conducts large diet and weight loss studies.
William Powderly, MD, the J. William Campbell Professor of Medicine and director of Washington University’s Institute for Public Health, is working with Gordon and colleagues at the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research in Bangladesh, plus faculty members across Washington University, to address some of the societal issues raised by the development of microbiota-directed food interventions for treating children with malnutrition.
