Keynote Presenters

Child Health Research in the 21st Century: Obstacles and Opportunities

Jonathan D. Gitlin, M.D., is the Helene B. Roberson Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Genetics at the Washington University School of Medicine, and Scientific Director of the Children's Discovery Institute, a joint research venture between Washington University and St. Louis Children's Hospital. Dr. Gitlin completed his pediatric residency and fellowship at the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston and was on the faculty at the Harvard Medical School before coming to Washington University in 1986. He is board certified in Pediatrics and teaches and cares for patients at St. Louis Children's Hospital where he is currently Chief of the Division of Genetics & Genomic Medicine. In 1999 he was designated Clinical Teacher of the Year at the Washington University School of Medicine. His research utilizes zebrafish as an experimental system to explore the role of genetics and nutrition in early human development. In recognition of this scholarship he has received numerous awards, including the E. Mead Johnson Award for Excellence in Research from the Society for Pediatric Research, the Samuel Rosenthal Foundation Award for Excellence in Academic Pediatrics, the Chancellor's Hartwell Prize for Innovative Research from Washington University and a MERIT Award for prestigious research from the National Institutes of Health.

The Promise of Molecular Medicine

Janet Woodcock, M.D., is Deputy Commissioner and Chief Medical Officer of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  She oversees scientific and medical regulatory operations for FDA.  Dr. Woodcock most recently served as the FDA’s  Deputy Commissioner for Operations and Chief Operating Officer (2005-2007).  She also served as Director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA (1994-2005).  She previously served in other positions at the FDA including Director, Office of Therapeutics Research and Review and Acting Deputy Director, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.  Dr. Woodcock received her M.D. from Northwestern Medical School, and completed further training and held teaching appointments at the Pennsylvania State University and the University of California in San Francisco.  She joined FDA in 1986.

Dining in With a Few Trillion Friends: Exploring the Human Gut Microbiota and Microbiome

Jeffrey Gordon, M.D., is the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He received his A.B. from Oberlin College and his M.D. from the University of Chicago. He joined the Washington University faculty in 1981 after completing his clinical training in internal medicine and gastroenterology, and spending three years as a research associate at the NIH. He was Head of the Department of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology from 1991-2004, before becoming Director of a new interdepartmental, interdisciplinary Center for Genome Sciences. From 1994 to 2003, he also served as Director of the University’s Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, which oversees all Ph.D and M.D./Ph.D students in the biological sciences.

Dr. Gordon and his students have conducted interdisciplinary studies of the genomic and metabolic foundations of symbiotic host-microbial relationships in the human gut. His group has sequenced the genomes of individual prominent human gut symbionts, as well as the gut’s microbial community genome (microbiome). They also developed and used normal, and genetically engineered gnotobiotic animal models (mice/zebrafish) to characterize how these microbes function in their habitats.

Dr. Gordon is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  In 2000, he was chosen to be the first recipient of an annual outstanding Faculty Mentor Award established by the Graduate Student Council at Washington University.