Kenneth Rainin Foundation
2024 Innovations Symposium
July 15-16, 2024 | Palace Hotel, San Francisco
Guest Speakers
The Innovations Symposium brings together forward-thinking researchers, clinicians, and industry professionals who are working to solve Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Hear a range of perspectives from leaders working within and outside of the IBD field.
Registration has ended.
Greg Barton, PhD
Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Speaker Highlights
Dr. Barton investigates how the immune system functions to shed light on the mechanisms underlying autoimmunity and inflammatory diseases. Learn more.
Andreas Bäumler, PhD
Professor, University of California, Davis
Speaker HighlightsDr. Bäumler has a long history of pioneering new models and approaches to address key questions about the pathogenesis of gastroenteritis. He is one of the leaders in the field of Salmonella research. Learn more.
Ilana Brito, PhD
Associate Professor, Cornell University
Speaker HighlightsProf. Brito’s lab studies systems-level methods to examine the human microbiome, protein-mediated interactions with human tissue, and horizontal gene transfer, and the transmission of commensal microbes between people and their environments and the health impacts of such transmission events. Learn more.
Jean-Frederic Colombel, MD
Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai
Speaker HighlightsDr. Colombel is a clinician and research whose work focuses on advancing the understanding of Inflammatory Bowel Disease and developing effective treatments, to implement major clinical trials that have the potential to significantly improve treatments for patients across the spectrum of the disease. Learn more. 
Daria Esterházy, PhD
Assistant Professor, The University of Chicago
Speaker HighlightsThe Esterházy lab studies how immune homeostasis is maintained in the digestive system. Their fundamental approach is to investigate the niche-specific immune landscapes and challenges within the digestive system, in order to better understand the site-specific susceptibility to gastrointestinal diseases such as IBDs, food allergies, autoimmune diseases, and cancer, ultimately to inform about more effective and tailored treatment strategies. Learn more.
Michael Fischbach, PhD
Professor, Stanford University
Speaker HighlightsDr. Fischbach uses a combination of genomics and chemistry to identify and characterize small molecules from microbes, with an emphasis on the human microbiome. Learn more. 
Andrew Goodman, PhD
CNH Long Professor and Chair, Department of Microbial Pathogenesis; Director, Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University
Speaker HighlightsDr. Goodman seeks to dissect the mechanisms that commensal gut microbes use to compete, cooperate, and antagonize each other in the gut and how microbiome variation impacts our response to external perturbations. Learn more.
Karen Guillemin, PhD
Philip H. Knight Chair and Professor of Biology, University of Oregon
Speaker HighlightsDr. Guillemin’s lab strives to understand how hosts and their associated microbial communities shape each other during development and in the context of disease. Learn more. 
Iliyan Iliev, PhD
Associate Professor, Weill Cornell Medicine
Speaker HighlightsThe Iliev laboratory applies translational, experimental and computational approaches to study the role of immunity to mycobiota early and later in life, upon therapeutic interventions and during conditions, such as inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, and immunodeficiencies, where fungi contribute to pathologies. Learn more. 
Bana Jabri, MD, PhD
Professor, The University of Chicago
Speaker HighlightsThe Jabri lab studies mechanisms underlying the development of complex intestinal inflammatory disorders with a particular focus on the interplay between the tissue, immune cells and the microbiota and its impact on the regulation and function of tissue resident T cells. Their research is primarily driven by the study of human tissues and immune cells, and aims at developing mechanistic hypotheses based on the discoveries made in patients and testing them in mouse and cellular models. Her laboratory is also involved in the development of preclinical models and clinical trials. Learn more. 
Kate Jeffrey, PhD
Vice President of Immune Therapeutics, Moderna
Speaker HighlightsModerna Immune Therapeutics within Research and Early Development focuses on the discovery and development of therapeutic and prophylactic approaches to autoimmunity, inflammation. Kate’s research has focused on innate immunity and understanding how epigenetics and environmental cues such as the virome contribute to complex immune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and hematology using Moderna’s proprietary mRNA technology. Learn more. 
Michael Kattah, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, University of California, San Francisco
Speaker HighlightsThe Kattah lab aims to understand the causes of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. We are particularly interested in how intestinal epithelial cells contribute to disease. The ultimate goal is to develop patient-tailored treatment strategies that maximize efficacy and minimize toxicity for individual patients. Learn more. 
Charlie Lees, PhD
Professor, University of Edinburgh; Consultant Gastroenterologist, Western General Hospital
Speaker HighlightsDr. Lees major research activities are at the translational interface between basic science and direct clinical application, and include the genetics and pharmacogenetics of IBD, the role of diet, nutrition, and the gut microbiota in disease aetiopathogenesis and prognosis, IBD therapeutics, monitoring and e-health. Learn more. 
Gwendalyn Randolph, PhD
Professor, Washington University in St. Louis
Speaker HighlightsDr. Randolph is a leading expert in macrophages and lymphatic vasculature. Her lab considers the impact of how transit of cells and molecules out of tissues influences the inflammatory microenvironment. Learn more.
Meenakshi Rao, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Speaker HighlightsThe Rao lab uses mouse genetic models to investigate how information about nutrients, microbes and mechanical stimuli is detected and used by the enteric nervous system (ENS) to regulate GI motility, tissue repair and immune responses. Learn more. 
Peter Turnbaugh, PhD
Professor, University of California, San Francisco
Speaker HighlightsDr. Turnbaugh’s research has focused on the metabolic activities performed by the trillions of microbes that colonize our adult bodies. Dr. 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. Learn more. For questions about the Symposium, please contact Health program staff.
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