Center for Microbial Medicine Opens to Support Personalized, Microbiome-based Medicine

Dedicated to uncovering new ways to harness the microorganisms that live on and within us, the Center for Microbial Medicine aims to improve pediatric health by quickly moving microbiome-based discoveries from the bench to bedside. The Center was designated as a new CHOP Center of Emphasis beginning July 1.

Led by Joseph Zackular, PhD; Ahmed Moustafa, BPharm, PhD; Paul Planet, MD, PhD; and Robert N. Baldassano, MD, the Center for Microbial Medicine is one of the first centers to have the primary focus of bringing microbiome-based medicine to pediatric patients. The Center will create a clinical trials unit to translate cutting-edge microbiome discoveries directly to patients. Using state-of-the-art sequencing technologies, the team will use the microbiome to develop new diagnostics and microbiome-based interventions for diseases across multiple disciplines in pediatric health, including neurobiology, cancer therapy, immunotherapy, and more.

The Center’s goals involve the study of

• Microbiome-informed clinical decisions
• Integration of patient data for personalized medicine
• Microbiome-based therapeutics and live biotherapeutic products for pediatric patients
• Development of clinical trials related to pediatric microbiome medicine.

Partnering with the PennCHOP Microbiome Program and the Center for Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease at CHOP, the Center for Microbial Medicine developed the microbial ARchive and Cryo-collection that provides an unparalleled resource for the CHOP-Penn research community and the microbial medicine field.

Meet the leaders of the Center to learn more about this important research and how you can contribute. Contact Co-directors Dr. Moustafa, Dr. Planet, Dr. Baldassano, or Dr. Zackular with any questions.