Daniel Menichella
Neil Schauer Ph.D
Bradley Evan
Dr Bradley emergency physician and clinical scientist with a focus on the interaction the microbiome and infectious diseases with the goal is of utilizing cutting edge technologies to address relevant clinical questions that have the highest impact for changing current clinical practice. He is currently engaged in a study of the urinary microbiome to understand microbiome factors that are associated with pathogen colonization and factors that differentiate colonization from active infection.
Recently his work has shifted to focus on COVID19 with funding through the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. The oral microbiome is hypothesized to influence respiratory health, including how the immune system responds to respiratory viral infection such as influenza and the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of the pandemic Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). In ongoing projects, he is investigating the association between the oral microbiome and acute COVID19 as well as the development of persistent symptoms, known as longCOVID.
John Haran
Dr. John Haran is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Microbiology & Physiological Systems at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester Massachusetts. He is also Clinical director for the Center for Microbiome Research and member of the Program in Microbiome Dynamics at UMass Chan. He graduated from UMass Medical School in 2007 and completed Residency training at Brown University in 2011. He has been at UMass Chan since then, completing his PhD training in Biomedical Sciences in 2018.
Dr. Haran’s research background has focused on investigations into older adult health and associations with microbiome composition and health outcomes in both nursing home and community-dwelling elders. His earlier work had focused on the microbiome and how dysbiosis can lead to increased risk of bacterial colonization and infection.
Dr. Haran’s current National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer’s Association funding focuses on the oral and gut microbiomes and the roles they play in the “microbiome-brain axis”. He has published findings demonstrating that the intestinal microbiome of elders with Alzheimer’s disease have a pro-inflammatory dysbiotic pattern that can induce disruption of the intestinal epithelium homeostasis in in vitro models. His current work enrolls and follows older adults, collecting longitudinal cognitive data and microbiome data by whole genome sequencing exploring the hypothesis that the microbiome is the driver of immune system dysfunction leading to neurocognitive decline.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic Dr. Haran has been involved in multiple federal and privately funded projects investigating different aspects of this disease. His clinical trial work focused on vaccine, monoclonal antibody, and antiviral trials to prevent or treat COVID-19. He is a leading site in the CDC’s vaccine efficacy surveillance network. His most recent published work describes how an individual’s oral microbiome composition during early infection can predict which patients go on to develop long-COVID.
Dr. Walden “Wally” Rhines
WALDEN C. RHINES is President & CEO of Cornami. He is also CEO Emeritus of Mentor, a Siemens business, focusing on external communications and customer relations. He was previously CEO of Mentor Graphics for 23 years and Chairman of the Board for 17 years. During his tenure at Mentor, revenue nearly quadrupled and market value of the company increased 10X.
Prior to joining Mentor Graphics, Dr. Rhines was Executive Vice President, Semiconductor Group, responsible for TI’s worldwide semiconductor business. During his 21 years at TI, he was President of the Data Systems Group and held numerous other semiconductor executive management positions.
Dr. Rhines has served on the boards of Cirrus Logic, QORVO, TriQuint Semiconductor, Global Logic and as Chairman of the Electronic Design Automation Consortium (five two-year terms) and is currently a director. He is also a board member of the Semiconductor Research Corporation and First Growth Children & Family Charities. He is a Lifetime Fellow of the IEEE and has served on the Board of Trustees of Lewis and Clark College, the National Advisory Board of the University of Michigan and Industrial Committees advising Stanford University and the University of Florida.
Dr. Rhines holds a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University of Michigan, a Master of Science and PhD in materials science and engineering from Stanford University, a master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University and Honorary Doctor of Technology degrees from the University of Florida and Nottingham Trent University.
