Ruth E. Ley | |
---|---|
Born | 1970 (age 52–53) England, UK |
Spouse | Lars T. Angenent |
Academic background | |
Education | BA, Integrative Biology, 1992, University of California, Berkeley PhD, 2001, University of Colorado, Boulder |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Max Planck Institute Cornell University Washington University School of Medicine |
Website | leylab |
Ruth E. Ley (born 1970) is a British-American microbial ecologist. Ley was an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Cornell University until 2018. She is currently serving as the director of the Microbiome Science Department at the Max Planck Institute for Biology.
Ley was born in 1970,in England. [1] Her family moved from Surrey to Paris,France,when she was six years old. She grew accustomed to the country and spoke fluent French before her family moved to the United States seven years later to settle in Palo Alto,California. [2]
She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in integrative biology from the University of California,Berkeley and her PhD at the University of Colorado,Boulder. [3] By the conclusion of her doctorate degree,she became interested in what the microbes were and teamed up with Norman R. Pace to apply metagenomics to salt flats. [4] During this time,she met her future husband Lars Angenent who was also completing his post-doctoral research at the University of Colorado,Boulder. [5]
Following her post-doctoral research with Pace,Ley moved to the Washington University School of Medicine to work with Jeffrey I. Gordon on the microbiome within the contexts of human obesity and mammalian evolution. She was then named an instructor in 2005 and research assistant professor two years later. [6] She assisted on his groundbreaking paper to show that ones body weight is not solely dependent on how much one eats and how much energy one expends through exercise. They instead found a third factor,the microbial composition of one's intestines. [2] After a dual career job search,they joined the faculty at Cornell University. [5] In 2008,the family moved to Ithaca,New York. [2]
While working in the role as an assistant professor of microbiology,Ley was the recipient of a 2010 Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation to study how human genetic variation relates to the diversity of the gut microbiome. For the study,Ley investigated how human genetic variation relates to the microbiome by comparing the microbiomes of genotyped twins to determine heritable components of the microbiome . [7] In the same year,she also received a National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award,"to stimulate innovative research and support promising new investigators who are studying biomedical or behavioral research conditions." [8] As a result of her academic achievements,Ley was awarded the 2014 Young Investigator Award from the International Society for Microbial Ecology. [9]
Ley was appointed the part-time director of the Microbiome Science Department at the Max Planck Institute in January 2016 and full-time from summer 2016 and beyond. [6] During the COVID-19 pandemic,Ley was the recipient of the 2020 Otto Bayer Award and Early Excellence in Science Award "for her groundbreaking research into the human microbiome." [1] She was also elected a Fellow of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina [10] and European Molecular Biology Organization. [11]
The Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology Tübingen was located in Tübingen,Germany;it was founded as Max Planck Institute for Virus Research in 1954 as an offshoot of the Tübingen-based Max Planck Institute for Biology. From 1984 to 2021,it was named Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology. The topics of scientific research conducted at the institute cover a very wide range -- from biochemistry,cell and developmental biology to evolutionary and ecological genetics,functional genomics and bioinformatics -- in order to address fundamental questions in microbial,plant and animal biology,including the interaction between different organisms.
Jeffrey I. Gordon is a biologist and the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor and Director of the Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. He is internationally known for his research on gastrointestinal development and how gut microbial communities affect normal intestinal function,shape various aspects of human physiology including our nutritional status,and affect predisposition to diseases. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences,the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies,and the American Philosophical Society.
Paola Ricciardi-Castagnoli,is an Italian Immunologist based in Siena,Italy. Paola is the scientific director of Toscana Life Sciences Foundation (TLS) in Siena. She was former scientific director of the Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN).
Alexandra (Alex) Z. Worden is a microbial ecologist and genome scientist known for her expertise in the ecology and evolution of ocean microbes and their influence on global biogeochemical cycles.
Roger Sidney Goody is an English biochemist who served as director at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology in Dortmund from 1993 until 2013. Since 2013 he is Emeritus Director of the institute.
Karen Nelson is a Jamaican-born American microbiologist who was formerly president of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI). On July 6,2021 she joined Thermo Fisher Scientific as Chief Scientific Officer.
A microbiome is the community of microorganisms that can usually be found living together in any given habitat. It was defined more precisely in 1988 by Whipps et al. as "a characteristic microbial community occupying a reasonably well-defined habitat which has distinct physio-chemical properties. The term thus not only refers to the microorganisms involved but also encompasses their theatre of activity". In 2020,an international panel of experts published the outcome of their discussions on the definition of the microbiome. They proposed a definition of the microbiome based on a revival of the "compact,clear,and comprehensive description of the term" as originally provided by Whipps et al.,but supplemented with two explanatory paragraphs. The first explanatory paragraph pronounces the dynamic character of the microbiome,and the second explanatory paragraph clearly separates the term microbiota from the term microbiome.
Petra Schwille is a German professor and a researcher in the area of biophysics. Since 2011,she has been a director of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biophysics at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried,Germany. She is known for her ground-laying work in the field of fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy,and numerous contributions on model membranes. Her current research focuses around bottom-up approaches to building an artificial cell within a broader area of synthetic biology. In 2010,Schwille received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize.
B. Brett Finlay,is a Canadian microbiologist well known for his contributions to understanding how microbes cause disease in people and developing new tools for fighting infections,as well as the role the microbiota plays in human health and disease. Science.ca describes him as one of the world's foremost experts on the molecular understanding of the ways bacteria infect their hosts. He also led the SARS Accelerated Vaccine Initiative (SAVI) and developed vaccines to SARS and a bovine vaccine to E. coli O157:H7. His current research interests focus on pathogenic E. coli and Salmonella pathogenicity,and the role of the microbiota in infections,asthma,and malnutrition. He is currently the UBC Peter Wall Distinguished Professor and a Professor in the Michael Smith Laboratories,Microbiology and Immunology,and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,and Co-director and Senior Fellow for the CIFAR Humans and Microbes program. He is also co-author of the book Let Them Eat Dirt:Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World and The Whole-Body Microbiome:How to Harness Microbes - Inside and Out - For Lifelong Health. Finlay is the author of over 500 publications in peer-reviewed journals and served as editor of several professional publications for many years.
Elena Conti is an Italian biochemist and molecular biologist. She serves as Director and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried,Germany,where she uses structural biology and biophysical techniques to study RNA transport and RNA metabolism. Together with Elisa Izaurralde,she helped characterize proteins important for exporting mRNA out of the nucleus.
Nicole Dubilier is a marine microbiologist and director of the Symbiosis Department at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology since 2013 and a Professor of Microbial Symbioses at the University of Bremen. She is a pioneer in ecological and evolutionary symbiotic relationships between sea animals and their microbial partners inhabiting environments that harbour low nutrient concentrations. She was responsible for the discovery of a new form of symbiosis between two kinds of bacteria and the marine oligochaete Olavius algarvensis.
Emily P. Balskus is an American chemical biologist,enzymologist,microbiologist,and biochemist born in Cincinnati,Ohio in 1980. She has been on the faculty of the Chemistry and Chemical Biology department of Harvard University since 2011 and is currently the Morris Kahn Professor. She has published more than 80 peer-reviewed papers and three book chapters. Since 2012 she has been invited to give over 170 lectures,has held positions on various editorial boards,and served as a reviewer for ACS and Nature journals among others. Balskus also currently serves as a consultant for Novartis,Kintai Therapeutics,and Merck &Co.
Melina Schuh is a German biochemist and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences. She is known for her work on meiosis in mammalian oocytes,for her studies on the mechanisms leading to the age-related decline in female fertility,and for the development of the Trim-Away protein depletion method.
Rachel Dutton is an American microbiologist. She has developed the microorganisms that live on cheese into a model system for complex interacting microbial communities. She has worked with chefs including Dan Felder,head of research and development at Momofuku to develop new fermentation procedures to be used in food and has been called the "go-to microbiologist" for chefs and gastronomists.
Asifa Akhtar is a Pakistani biologist who has made significant contributions to the field of chromosome regulation. She is Senior Group Leader and Director of the Department of Chromatin Regulation at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics. Akhtar was awarded EMBO membership in 2013. She became the first international and female Vice President of the Max Planck Society's Biology and Medicine Section in July 2020.
Abigail A. Salyers was a microbiologist who pioneered the field of human microbiome research. Her work on the bacterial phylum Bacteroidetes and its ecology led to a better understanding of antibiotic resistance and mobile genetic elements. At a time where the prevailing paradigm was focused on E. coli as a model organism,Salyers emphasized the importance of investigating the breadth of microbial diversity. She was one of the first to conceptualize the human body as a microbial ecosystem. Over the course of her 40 year career,she was presented with numerous awards for teaching and research and an honorary degree from ETH Zurich,and served as president of the American Society for Microbiology.
Emma Allen-Vercoe is a British-Canadian Molecular biologist who is a Professor and Canada Research Chair at the University of Guelph. Her research considers the gut microbiome and microbial therapeutics to treat Escherichia coli.
Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello is a Venezuelan-American microbial ecologist that has worked on adaptations of gut fermentation organs in animals,gastric colonization by bacteria,assembly of the microbiota in early life,effect of practices that reduce microbiota transmission and colonization in humans,and effect of urbanization. She is the Henry Rutgers Professor of Microbiome and Health at Rutgers University,New Brunswick. She is the Director of the New Jersey Institute for Food,Nutrition,and Health. Her lab at Rutgers collaborates in multidisciplinary science,integrating microbiology,immunology,pediatrics,nutrition,anthropology,environmental engineering and architecture/urban studies,and microbial ecology.
Peter J. Turnbaugh is a microbiologist and a professor at University of California,San Francisco. He is known for his research on the metabolic activities performed by the trillions of microbes that colonize humans' adult bodies. Turnbaugh and his research group use interdisciplinary approaches in preclinical models and human cohorts to study the mechanisms through which the gut microbiome influences nutrition and pharmacology.
Janet Knutson Jansson is an American biological scientist who is the Chief Scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. She investigates complex microbial communities,including those found in soil and the human gut. Jansson is part of the Phenotypic Response of the Soil Microbiome to Environmental Perturbations Science Focus Area,and is a Fellow of the American Society for Microbiology.