Jennifer Kirwan:
"Metabolomics: Towards Precision Medicine"
Metabolomics combines the effects of the genomic potential of an individual with their environmental experiences and microbiome interactions and reveals how these different factors interact to produce the observed phenotype. It can therefore act as an objective measure of an individual’s phenotype and, as such, it is an essential research tool in the quest for precision medicine. This talk will introduce the BIH Metabolomics Platform, discuss some of its newest tools, and showcase some of the preclinical and clinical research it is engaging in which are contributing towards our quest to precision medicine.
Johannes Benjamin Holle:
"Microbiota-Host Interaction in Children With Chronic Kidney Disease"
Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) suffer from a high morbidity and mortality, which is mainly attributed to cardiovascular disease. As a consequence of impaired kidney function, metabolites from gut microbial fermentation (uremic toxins) accumulate in the circulation of CKD patients and exhibit broad pro-inflammatory and pro-atherogenic effects. As a consequence, even children with CKD develop early cardiovascular damage, even in the absence of traditional comorbidities commonly seen in adult CKD patients. Therefore, the analysis of pediatric CKD cohorts with multi-omics approaches enables us to elucidate mechanism of microbiota-immune interaction which specifically related to CKD. We aim to gain a better understanding of the development of CKD-driven comorbidities and to identify new treatment targets to prevent renal function loss and the development of cardiovascular disease.