Keio University Human Biology-Microbiome-Quantum Research Center (WPI-Bio2Q) held a seminar as follows.

14:00 -15:00,  April 3, 2026

Venue:
6F Meeting Room Center for Integrated Medical Research, Shinanomachi Campus, Keio University

Speaker:
Damian R. Plichta, PhD
Head of Data Science, Novonesis, Human Health Biosolutions, Denmark
Visiting Scientist, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, USA
Adjunct Professor, DTU Bioengineering, Technical University of Denmark

Title: “Bioactive properties of the human microbiome revealed through multi-omics and advanced analytics and the path towards health promoting interventions”

Abstruct:
The human microbiome is an important modifier of health risks. Specific gut microbiome biomarkers, including bacterial species and various proteins or metabolites they produce, offer a compelling opportunity to support early life development, improve cardiometabolic health or promote healthy aging. In this talk, I will discuss identification of Eubacterium and Oscillibacter spp. that modify sterols through glycosylation and dehydrogenation, as well as a discovery of novel protease allergens encoded in the gut microbiome. These examples will demonstrate the value of large human cohorts, multi-omics data integration and AI advancement for modelling the language of proteins and their structures. Finally, I will describe the translational efforts in Novonesis to convert microbiome discoveries into products available to everyone with an example of early life interventions with Bifidobacterium spp.