OpenBiome Hosts Seminal Panel on Microbiome’s Role in Ending Malnutrition at UN Science Summit

Registration Now Open to “Lean In” With Leading Researchers, Implementors and Funders to Unlock New Lines of Inquiry on the Gut Microbiome.

(WOBURN, MA) September 12, 2024 – OpenBiome, a pioneering nonprofit microbiome health organization, will explore the dramatic growth of microbiome science and its potential as a game-changing solution for malnutrition during its session “Why the Gut Microbiome is Critical to Children’s Health: Harnessing Microbiome Science to End Malnutrition” on September 25, 2024, at the Science Summit at the UN General Assembly.

Three million children suffer from malnutrition, which contributes to nearly half of all children’s deaths worldwide.  This takes a severe toll on the health and wealth of those afflicted and their respective countries, with malnutrition robbing global GNP by some USD$3.5 trillion in lost productivity and job growth. The most significant burden falls on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), with undernutrition affecting one out of five children, robbing them of their childhood and impacting their long-term health, learning and earning power.

“We cannot waste another moment.  We know well the health, economic and policy implications if we do not urgently commit to solving malnutrition with new science and new tools,” said Julie Barrett O-Brien, CEO, OpenBiome. “In recent years, microbiome science has transformed approaches to seemingly intractable diseases such as antibiotic resistance, gut disease and cancer. There have been few therapeutic advances in malnutrition over the past 30 years. It’s time to explore how microbiome science can help lead to solutions to the SDGs, particularly around malnutrition.”

The interactive panel convenes leading scientists, funders and changemakers from across the globe to prompt ideas and action to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Offered in person and via livestream, panel participants are:

Julie Barrett O’Brien
Chief Executive Officer, OpenBiome

Dr. Majdi Osman
Chief Medical Officer, OpenBiome

Dr. Jeffrey I. Gordon
Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor and Director of the Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology at Washington University in St. Louis

Dr. Billo Tall
Manager, Clinical Research, Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Senegal

Dr. Tahmeed Ahmed
Executive Director, icddr,b, Bangladesh

Dr. Vanessa Ridaura
Senior Program Officer, Microbiome Products, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Dr. Nigel Rollins
Medical Officer, WHO Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Aging

Hilina Belete
General Manager, Hilina Enriched Foods, Ethiopia

Register for in-person and remote participation here:  https://ssunga79.sched.com/event/1jziU/why-the-gut-microbiome-is-critical-to-childrens-health-harnessing-microbiome-science-to-end-malnutrition

To arrange backgrounders and one-on-one interviews:  dhfusilli@gmail.com or Media@openbiome.org

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OpenBiome accelerates microbiome science and therapeutics to improve health for all. The nonprofit partners with leading researchers, clinicians and innovators to advance and ensure access to novel and affordable microbiome therapeutics.