Idea exchange calgary

Idea Exchange: Microbiome

Idea Exchange: Microbiome 

June 13, 2019 | 4:30 – 7 p.m. | Free
Location: Hudson, 200 8 Ave. S.W. (see map
 

Did you know that the growing use of antibiotics and antibacterial products could be doing more harm than good?

Join us on June 13 to discover the importance of germs for a healthy microbiome. Together, we’ll hear how UCalgary researchers are unlocking the connection between birth and the microbiome, and how your microbiome can either save you or fail you when it comes to infections. 


Meet the Speakers

Dr. Kathy McCoy, PhD

Dr. Kathy McCoy, PhD

Dr. Kathy McCoy is a professor in UCalgary’s Department of Physiology and Pharmacology and scientific director of the International Microbiome Centre (IMC). She is also a member of the Snyder Institute for Chronic Disease. Her research focuses on host-microbial interactions, with a focus on early life. McCoy received a PhD in immunology from the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research at Otago University in Wellington, N.Z. She took postdoctoral studies at the Institute of Experimental Immunology in Zurich before joining McMaster University as an assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in Mucosal Immunology. Before joining UCalgary’s Cumming School of Medicine in 2016, she was an assistant professor in mucosal immunology with the University of Bern, Switzerland.

Dr. Marie-Claire Arrieta, PhD

Dr. Marie-Claire Arrieta, PhD

Dr. Marie-Claire Arrieta is an assistant professor in both UCalgary’s Department of Physiology & Pharmacology and its Department of Pediatrics. She is also a member of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Arrieta began her training as a medical microbiologist in San Jose, Costa Rica, before attaining her Master of Science and PhD at the University of Alberta. Her postdoctoral fellowship work was in the lab of prominent molecular microbiologist Dr. Brett Finlay at UBC. Arrieta’s research has examined the relationship between the gut microbiome, the gut’s microbiome system and asthma, as well as the role of “leaky gut” (intestinal permeability) in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease. Science communication is also important to Arrieta, who has written one book, Let Them Eat Dirt, and is working on both a children’s book and a documentary film.

Dr. Braedon McDonald, MD’13, PhD’13

Dr. Braedon McDonald, MD’13, PhD’13

Alumnus Dr. Braedon MacDonald has joined the Cumming School of Medicine as an assistant professor in the departments of Critical Care Medicine and Medicine. Originally from Crossfield, Alta., McDonald trained in microbiology and immunology at McGill University before coming to UCalgary where he completed his MD and a PhD in immunology. He later trained in internal medicine at the University of British Columbia. He then returned to UCalgary where he completed a fellowship in adult critical care medicine, as well as a postdoctoral research fellowship in Dr. Kathy McCoy’s lab at the IMC. Braedon has joined the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases and IMC as a clinician-scientist, leading a translational and basic science research program on microbiome-immune interactions in infection and critical illness