Lora Hooper, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Immunology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where she holds the Jonathan Uhr Endowed Chair in Immunology. Dr. Hooper earned her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology in 1996 at Washington University in St. Louis. She then joined Dr. Jeffrey Gordon’s lab, also at Washington University, as a postdoctoral researcher. During her postdoctoral training, she developed her ongoing interest in the intestinal microbiota. Dr. Hooper joined the faculty of UT Southwestern Medical Center in 2003 and became an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2008. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2015 and became Chair of the Immunology Department at UT Southwestern in 2016.

Her research team at UT Southwestern studies how the intestinal microbiota shapes various aspects of mammalian host physiology. The approaches used in her lab range from biochemical and structural approaches for understanding the molecular basis for intestinal immune responses, to mouse genetic approaches for identifying immune pathways that are important for maintaining host-microbial homeostasis. These studies are aimed at gaining a basic mechanistic understanding of how the immune system deals with symbiotic intestinal bacteria. More recently, her group has been exploring how the microbiota regulates mammalian metabolism through interactions with the circadian clock.

William E. Goldman, Ph.D., is a Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is involved in research and training related to microbiology and infectious diseases.  At UNC, he served as Chair of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology from 2008-2018.  Prior to that appointment, he was on the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis for 25 years.  His laboratory’s focus has been on bacteria and fungi that cause respiratory infections such as pertussis (whooping cough), histoplasmosis, and pneumonic plague.  Dr. Goldman has been invited to speak on these topics at more than 80 international conferences and has presented nearly 150 seminars at research institutions and regional meetings.  He has also been involved in community outreach, speaking to teenage and adult science enthusiasts about biodefense, vaccines, and the evolution of pathogenic microorganisms.  Dr. Goldman has served as a Senior Editor of the journal Molecular Microbiology (2001-2008) and has also been elected to chair international conferences on microbial pathogenesis, including a FASEB Summer Research Conference (2000) and a Gordon Research Conference (2002).  He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (since 2002) and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (since 2012).  Dr. Goldman has been an active member of the American Society for Microbiology for 40 years and is currently serving as Chair of the Biomedical Subcommittee of ASM’s Public and Scientific Affairs Committee.