Part 2 of the Microbiome Miniseries, with Barbara Bendlin and Federico Rey

In this second installment of the Microbiome Miniseries, researchers Barbara Bendlin and Federico Rey will discuss the many factors that can impact brain aging, with a special focus on the gut-brain superhighway and the role that the gut microbiome can have on brain health.

Barbara Bendlin is a faculty member in the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology within the Department of Medicine. She is a member of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute’s Executive Committee and the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Executive Committee, leads the Research Education Component in the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and directs the UW-Madison Neuroscience and Public Policy Program. Dr. Bendlin is a recipient of a 2019 Distinguished Honors Faculty Award and is an associate editor of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Federico Rey started his independent research program in bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013. A major focus of his group is to understand how variations in the gut microbiome composition modulate the effects of diet and the host’s susceptibility to cardiometabolic and cognitive diseases. To address these issues, his team uses a combination of hypothesis-generating, sequencing-centered analyses of microbiomes from humans and mice, followed by proof-of-principle/proof­-of­-mechanism studies in gnotobiotic mouse models of disease and classical bacteriology experiments. The contributions from his team are helping move the field from associations to causal relationships and shedding light on the mechanisms by which gut microbes modulate health.

We value inclusion and access for all participants. If you would like to request reasonable accommodations to enhance your participation experience, please email idhub@wid.wisc.edu no later than 2 weeks prior to the event. This event is wheelchair accessible.

All Crossroads of Ideas sessions are recorded and shared post-event. Due to popular request, we will also be livestreaming the Microbiome Mini-series. Please register through the provided link if you intend to join in person or via the livestream link which will be shared upon registration.