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Invited Speakers Bios

Dr. Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown Ph.D., Arizona State, is currently an associate professor in Environmental Engineering and is part of the Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology in the Biodesign Institute. Dr Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown received her bachelor’s degree in Industrial Biochemical Engineering from the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana (UAM) in Mexico City in 1996. She worked for a year at IBTech, an Environmental Engineering consulting firm and in 1997 she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship which she used to get her master’s degree at Georgia Tech. She completed her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech in August of 2005. She is author of five patents, more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and has presented numerous talks and posters at national and international conference. She specializes on molecular microbial ecology for important anaerobic systems such as: microbial systems for bioremediation and bioenergy production, and the human intestinal microbial ecology and its relationship to obesity, bariatric surgeries, and autism.

 

Dr. Derrick MacFabe (M.D.), University of Western Ontario

Dr. Derrick MacFabe is Assistant Professor and Director of the Kilee Patchell-Evans Autism Research Group, Depts. of Psychology (Neuroscience) & Psychiatry (Division of Developmental Disabilities) at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. He is examining the role of gut bacterial factors in the causes, identification and possible treatments of autism spectrum disorders. Dr.

MacFabe's research concerning potential gastrointestinal links in autism has recently been listed among the "Top 50 Scientific Discoveries in Canada".

 

Dr. William Parker, PhD,, Duke University, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at Duke University Medical Center. He is best known for the discovery of the function of the human appendix and for work on immunity in wild animals. His most recent work combines medical research with fundamental biology, ecology, anthropology, and immunology, providing potential solutions for pandemics of allergic and autoimmune diseases.

 

Dr. James B. Adams, Arizona State is a President's Professor at Arizona State University, where he directs the Autism/Asperger's Research Program. His research is focused on biomedical issues in autism, including nutritional/dietary issues, GI issues, toxic metals, and more. He is also the president of the Autism Society of Greater Phoenix, and has a daughter with autism.

 

Dr. Richard Frye, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Dr. Frye is the Director of Autism Research at Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute and Director of the Autism Multispecialty Clinic at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, AR. Dr. Frye is a well-recognized expert in the diagnosis and treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and other developmental disorders. Dr. Frye has a broad background including specific training in neurodevelopmental disorders, physiology, psychology, and biostatistics. He is fellowship trained in Behavioral Neurology and Psychology and has clinical expertise in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of children with ASD. While at the University of Texas he developed a medically-based autism clinic which was specifically designed to diagnose and treat neurological and metabolic abnormalities associated with ASD in order to improve quality of life and promote recovery. Over the past two years he has completed three clinical studies related to ASD, including an open-label trial examining the metabolic and behavioral effects of tetrahydrobiopterin, a clinical study of the metabolic and genetic characteristics of children with ASD and mitochondrial disease, and a clinical study on the prevalence of the folate receptor alpha autoantibody in children with ASD, as well as the response to leucovorin treatment in ASD children with the folate receptor alpha autoantibody. As Director of Autism Research at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital his goal is to develop an integrated autism program that includes a multi-specialty autism clinic, a translational research program focusing on biomarkers and clinical-trials, and a basic science program focusing on mitochondrial and redox metabolic metabolism.

 

 

Dr. Carl E. Cerniglia is Director of the Division of Microbiology at the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR), Jefferson, AR., and is a Senior Biomedical Research Service Scientist for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Cerniglia has been at NCTR since 1980. He is also an adjunct Professor in the Dept. of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR. Dr. Cerniglia received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C. in 1976. After leaving N.C. State University, Dr. Cerniglia was a National Cancer Institute Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin from 1976-1980 in the laboratory of Dr. David T. Gibson. Dr. Cerniglia is active in a variety of government and academic committees and national and international review panels. Since 1994 to the present, Dr. Cerniglia has served as an advisor and expert reviewer at the World Health Organization on Antimicrobial Residues in Foods. Dr. Cerniglia is a fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology. He serves as a member of the editorial boards of J. of Microbiological Methods, Microbial Ecology, Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology, Environmental Toxicology and Water Quality,World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology, and J. of Toxicology and Environmental Health.

 

Dr. Emma Allen-Vercoe, University of Guelph. Emma Allen-Vercoe obtained her Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology in 1999 from the Open University (UK) as part of an industrial partnership with the Centre for Applied and Microbiological Research (CAMR, now the Health Protection Agency), Porton Down, UK, studying the role of fimbriae and flagella in Salmonella Enteritidis infections. As a postdoc, she remained at CAMR for 2 years, training to work with CL3 pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, before moving to Calgary in 2001 and taking up an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratories of Drs. Rebekah DeVinney and Mike Surette, working on EHEC pathogenesis.In 2004, Dr. Allen-Vercoe obtained a Canadian Association of Gastroenterologists /CIHR/ AstraZeneca Fellow-to-Faculty Transition Award that allowed her to develop her own research program and to join the Faculty of Medicine in Calgary in September 2005 as an Assistant Professor. At this point in her career she decided to branch out and build a niche for herself in the area of human gut microbiome research, then an emerging discipline. With CFI funding, Dr. Allen-Vercoe set up a laboratory for the culture of anaerobic bacteria, and she moved this set-up to the College of Biological Sciences, University of Guelph, in 2007. She currently carries out research on microbiota dysbiosis in a number of disease states, including IBD, Clostridium difficile infection, colorectal cancer and autism.

 

Dr. Susan Swedo, National Institute of Health. Dr. Swedo received her B.A. degree from Augustana College in 1977 and her M.D. from Southern Illinois University in 1980. Shortly after completing a residency in pediatrics at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Swedo was named Chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at the University. The following year, she moved to Washington D.C. and became a senior staff fellow in the Child Psychiatry Branch, NIMH. Dr. Swedo was granted tenure in 1992, became Head of the Section on Behavioral Pediatrics in 1994, and Chief of the Pediatrics and Developmental Neuropsychiatry Branch in 1998. She also served as the Acting Scientific Director for NIMH from 1995 through 1998. Dr. Swedo recently received the Joel Elkes International Research Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Her laboratory studies childhood-onset obsessive compulsive disorder and related disorders, including Tourette syndrome and Sydenham chorea.

 

Dr. Tore Midtvedt, Karolinska Institute.  Dr. Midtvedy is an international expert in Microbiology and has written many scientific articles and textbooks related to microbial function and has been a pionneer in investigations into the microbiome. He is a world leading authority on the microbiome in public health and has been an advocate of microbiota abnormalitites in children with Autism.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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