The intestinal microbiome is suggested to play an essential role in the development of chronic disorders. Dysbiosis is considered as an alteration in microbiota community structure and/or function, capable of causing/driving a detrimental distortion of microbe-host homeostasis. It is important to understand whether changes in microbial ecosystems are causally linked to the pathology and to what extent disease risk is predictable based on characteristic changes in community structure and/or function. Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and colon cancer are paradigm pathologies of the gastro-intestinal tract associated with changes in the microbiome. The gut interface provides a multicellular network that integrates changes in microbial and metabolite profiles, but the functional relevance of these microbiome signatures for disease susceptibility is still unclear.
Dirk Haller is Director of the Institute for Food & Health (ZIEL) and full Professor for Nutrition and Immunology (Chair) at the Technical University of Munich. He received his academic training at the University of Hohenheim, graduating in Nutrition Science and Food Technology, and completed his education with a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology. Following periods of research in Switzerland (Nestlé Research Center) and USA (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), he received an Emmy Noether career award from the German Research Foundation (DFG) to work at TUM. He declined international professorships in Canada (University of Alberta) and Switzerland (ETH Zurich) and is Kavli Frontiers of Science alumni (US National Academy of Science and Humboldt Foundation). He recently received the Main Award of the German Society of Medical Microbiology (DGHM). Dirk Haller currently coordinates the national priority program of the German Research Foundation (DFG) on “Intestinal microbiota”.
Moderation: Professor Dr. Katharina Riedel