General Sessions
Explore the full º£½ÇÖ±²¥ Microbe 2026 program and add these must-attend sessions to your itinerary to experience the science, innovation and community driving the field forward.
Discover all the sessions º£½ÇÖ±²¥ Microbe 2026 has to offer.
Join us for the Opening General Session of º£½ÇÖ±²¥ Microbe 2026, where we kick off with welcome remarks from º£½ÇÖ±²¥ President Alexander McAdam, M.D., Ph.D., D(ABMM), and a society update from º£½ÇÖ±²¥ CEO, Stefano Bertuzzi, Ph.D., MPH. The program includes recognition of the 2026 º£½ÇÖ±²¥ Awards and Prize recipients and the American Academy of Microbiology 2026 Fellows, as well as a virtual presentation from Lifetime Achievement Awardee, developer of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing and 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate, Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D.
Microbial CRISPR Systems Power Gene Editing for Human and Planetary Health—Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D.
Fundamental research to understand how bacteria fight viral infections uncovered the function of CRISPR-Cas programmable proteins that detect and cut specific DNA or RNA sequences. CRISPR technology is now an indispensable tool in human, animal and agricultural research. Furthermore, the FDA’s approval of a CRISPR therapy for sickle cell disease marked the beginning of a new era in health care. Doudna will discuss scientific and societal advances that will help expand both the applications and impact of genome editing across the globe.The opening session concludes with a featured scientific keynote highlighting cutting-edge microbiome research. Speakers representing each of the 3 co-located meetings at º£½ÇÖ±²¥ Microbe—Applied & Environmental Microbiology, Health and Mechanism Discovery—will present diverse perspectives on microbiome science.
From Microbiomes to Meals—Lawrence David, Ph.D.
Microbiome science has built a remarkable toolkit spanning DNA sequencing, ecological theory and bioinformatic pipelines for decoding complex bacterial communities. David’s lab has found that these same tools can crack open long-standing challenges in fields far from microbiology. This presentation will describe how DNA-based methods from microbial ecology can help track human diet and explore how these tools create new opportunities for studying diet-microbiome interactions.Ecological Management of the Microbiome to Improve Patient Outcomes—Joao Xavier, Ph.D
The gut microbiome shifts under antibiotic pressure. In vulnerable patients receiving intensive antibiotic prophylaxis, such as cancer patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation, the microbiome undergoes dramatic ecological collapse: a massive drop in diversity, loss of beneficial anaerobes and domination by opportunistic pathogens. In this presentation, Xavier will show quantitative evidence from longitudinal patient data on how antibiotics open ecological niches for pathogen expansion, raising the risk of bloodstream infection. By combining microbiome and clinical data with mechanistic ecological models, we can move from descriptive associations to predictive, clinically actionable insights. This work illustrates how ecological theory and microbiome data science can be combined to improve patient outcomes.The Gut Microbiome, Metabolites, and Immunity—Wendy S. Garrett, M.D., Ph.D.
Microbiome research now encompasses not only thorough surveys, but also mechanistic studies capable of identifying specific molecules that shape host health and susceptibility and resistance to disease. This talk will examine how dietary and microbial metabolites interact to either improve anti-tumor immunity or resolve intestinal inflammation. These findings demonstrate how decoding the gut’s chemical landscape can unlock precision immunotherapies for colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases.
Don’t miss this dynamic opening session for important º£½ÇÖ±²¥ updates and a distinguished lineup of speakers at the forefront of microbiology.
Stefano Bertuzzi, Ph.D., MPH
CEO
º£½ÇÖ±²¥
Alexander McAdam, M.D., Ph.D., D(ABMM)
º£½ÇÖ±²¥ President 2025-2026
Chief, Department of Laboratory Medicine; Medical Director, Infectious Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D.
º£½ÇÖ±²¥ Lifetime Achievement Awardee, Developer of CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editing and 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureate
Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair and Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and of Molecular and Cell Biology
University of California, Berkeley
Lawrence David, Ph.D.
º£½ÇÖ±²¥ Applied & Environmental Microbiology Meeting Keynote
Associate Professor in Duke University’s Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and Associate Director of the Duke Microbiome Center
Duke University
Joao Xavier, Ph.D.
º£½ÇÖ±²¥ Health Meeting Keynote
Full Faculty Member, Computational and Systems Biology
Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Wendy Garrett, M.D., Ph.D.
º£½ÇÖ±²¥ Mechanism Discovery Meeting Keynote
Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Harvard Medical School
Meet the Speakers
The 2026 º£½ÇÖ±²¥ President’s Forum highlights microbial evolutionary biology at multiple scales—from the fundamental forces governing genome architecture, to real-time natural selection unfolding inside the human body. Following opening remarks by º£½ÇÖ±²¥ President Alexander McAdam, M.D., Ph.D., D (ABMM), the session brings together 3 researchers to explore the evolution of microbial genomes and populations, with a particular focus on the forces that shape genetic change in bacteria.
Streamlining vs. Bloating of Microbial Genomes as a Consequence of the Population-genetic Environment—Michael Lynch, Ph.D.
Relative to eukaryotes, most prokaryotes have extraordinarily streamlined genomes, but in some contexts the latter can become laden with various kinds of exogenous DNA. These differences can be explained by alterations at the population-genetic level, including effective population sizes and mutation rates. All excess DNA is a mutational hazard, but bioenergetics also plays a key role, as the relative costs of maintaining and expressing genes are greatly elevated in small cells. These general principles provide the basis for a mechanistic theory for the evolution of genome and gene-structural complexity.Pervasive Selective Sweeps Within and Across Human Gut Microbiomes—Nandita Garud, Ph.D.
The human gut microbiome is a hotbed of evolution, with estimates of billions of mutations entering a single host’s microbiome daily. For us humans, this genetic dynamism is both an opportunity (e.g., enabling digestion of new foods) and a challenge (e.g., the evolution of drug resistance). Despite the potential importance of these effects, we currently know very little about the targets, rapidity and pervasiveness of evolution in gut bacteria. Garud will present her recent work quantifying selective sweeps accruing within approximately 40 prevalent species of gut bacteria within hosts on daily and monthly timescales, as well as across hosts on timescales exceeding a human lifetime. In summary, they demonstrate that selective sweeps are a common feature of human gut microbiomes and that targets of selection may be strongly impacted by host lifestyle and diets around the world.
Master Regulators Revealed by Ongoing Bacterial Evolution in vitro and in vivo—Vaughn Cooper, Ph.D.
Microbes commonly encounter new environments that demand rapid phenotypic change. Some of this adaptation can be accommodated by the heterogeneity among sibling cells, but new or persistent stresses often favor fitter mutants that are better suited to the challenges. Using diverse experimental designs in the lab, in model hosts and during infections, we might expect to discover diverse genetic mechanisms of adaptation by studying genome-wide evolution in action. Yet remarkably, we find that adaptations often converge upon common circuits, whereby selection acts on variants in conserved genes that lock or enhance the pathway for necessary short-term gains. These findings unmask the centrality of these genes within the regulatory hierarchy, the breadth of the traits they control, the conditions that microbes experience when colonizing hosts and, ultimately, how these regulators have evolved to enable rapid response in fluctuating environments.
Alexander McAdam, M.D., Ph.D.,
D (ABMM)
º£½ÇÖ±²¥ President, Host
º£½ÇÖ±²¥
Michael Lynch, Ph.D.
Center for Mechanisms of Evolution
Arizona State University
Nandita Garud, Ph.D.
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of California, Los Angeles
Vaughn Cooper, Ph.D.
Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
University of Pittsburgh
Join the President's Forum speakers for the on Sunday, June 7 from 10:15-11 a.m. for an opportunity to ask questions and engage in a discussion.
The º£½ÇÖ±²¥ Microbe Science and Society Lecture is a series that highlights the importance of new scientific discoveries and their impact on our community. Through this series, featuring world-renowned speakers and in-depth discussions on cutting-edge topics, º£½ÇÖ±²¥ showcases how microbes are essential in our lives and, through innovative technologies, can solve the world’s most pressing public health concerns.
In 2026, join moderator Colleen Kraft, M.D., M.S. ( º£½ÇÖ±²¥ Health Chair), and a distinguished panel, as they examine the critical gap between phage therapy’s proven clinical potential and its limited availability in patient care, examining the scientific, regulatory and system-level barriers that keep this life-saving approach out of reach. Through real-world insights and the work of the Phage Therapy Coordination Network, this session highlights how coordinated efforts across sectors can transform phage therapy into a scalable, reliable clinical solution.
Session Overview
Phage therapy is rapidly emerging as one of the most promising tools in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR)—and for patients who have exhausted antibiotic options, it can be lifesaving. Yet despite its demonstrated clinical successes, phage therapy remains inaccessible for most who could benefit from it. This session examines why a therapy with such profound potential is still difficult to obtain and what it will take to make it a dependable part of routine care.
The session opens with a keynote from Stephanie Strathdee, Ph.D., whose leadership in the field—and the global visibility brought by her book —has propelled phage therapy into public and scientific focus. Drawing on real-world compassionate‑use cases and today’s regulatory landscape, she will outline the urgent need to expand access for critically ill patients.
Following the keynote, a panel discussion will delve deeper into how advances in phage discovery, engineering and scalable production can be effectively connected to patient care, clarifying the coordinated systems and cross‑sector alignment essential for clinical adoption.
Central to this effort is the Phage Therapy Coordination Network, an º£½ÇÖ±²¥ Health initiative supported by a distinguished core group or experts across academia, clinical, regulatory science and industry. The network serves a neutral convening platform to align evidence, standards and strategy—enabling progress on challenges that no single sector can address independently.
This session positions phage therapy as a shared systems challenge, not merely a scientific one. Speakers will explore persistent barriers that prevent promising therapies from transitioning into widely available clinical treatments. Using international regulatory approaches and frontline clinical insights, the discussion will highlight what’s currently missing and the structural changes required to make phage therapy reliable, scalable and sustainable.
Discover how scientific innovation, supported by a connected system, can transform phage therapy from isolated success stories into a reproducible, impactful tool against AMR. Learn how the Phage Therapy Coordination Network will become º£½ÇÖ±²¥'s model for translating microbial science into public‑health progress at scale.
Colleen Kraft, M.D., M.S.
Moderator, º£½ÇÖ±²¥ Health Chair, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases,
Emory University Hospital
Steffanie Strathdee, Ph.D.
Featured Science & Society Lecture, Author of "The Perfect Predator: A Scientists' Race to Save Her Husband From a Deadly Superbug"
IPATH, UC San Diego
Daria Van Tyne, Ph.D.
Pittsburgh Phage Program, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases
University of Pittsburgh
Vivek Mutalik, Ph.D.
Staff Scientist and Principal Investigator at Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division and Biological Systems and Engineering Division
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Key Discussion Topics Include:
- Understand the societal relevance of phage therapy in the context of antimicrobial resistance.
- Recognize how coordination across science, medicine and policy enables responsible access.
- Explore how scalable discovery and manufacturing approaches support public benefit.
- Appreciate the role of scientific societies in translating microbiology into societal impact.