André-Denis Wright is Professor and Director of the School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences at the University of Arizona (UA). Dr. Wright holds the Carl and Patricia Weiler Endowed Chair for Excellence in Agriculture & Life Sciences and is a BIO5 Research Fellow. Before coming to UA in Nov. 2014, Dr. Wright was Professor and Department Chair of Animal Science at the University of Vermont. For nearly two decades, Dr. Wright has been developing strategies to increase the efficiency of nutrient utilization in livestock and to raise the level of production of food in an ecologically sustainable way (i.e., decrease enteric methane). Several years ago, his research interests expanded to also include human gut microbiology. Dr. Wright’s internationally recognized research uses next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics to examine the gut microbiome of animals, including humans, to better understand the interactions between host genetics, immune responses, and the gut microbiota. Dr. Wright received his Ph.D. from the University of Guelph in Canada, has published 98 peer-reviewed papers and 16 book chapters, and has given 30 plenary lectures in 10 different countries. Dr. Wright currently serves on the Editorial Boards for 5 journals, has served on review panels for the USDA, NSF, and NASA; and has served as an external scientific reviewer for the governments of Canada, Russia, Kazakhstan, Scotland, and Switzerland. In 2008, he had a ciliated protozoan named after him, Apokeronopsis wrighti, in recognition of his contributions to microbiology.
Dr. Wright will present new unpublished data on the gut microbiomes of several herbivore and omnivore species, including humans.
