Christopher B Ford Email & Phone Number

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

Over the past century, antibiotics, changes in nutrition, and other environmental factors have dramatically altered the shape of the human microbiome. These microbial ecologies residing in and on the human body are now understood to be vital to our health. Seres Health is pioneering a new approach to fundamentally restore and maintain healthy microbiomes. The Company was conceived of and launched by VentureLabs, Flagship Ventures' Innovation Foundry, and has recruited the world’s leaders in the scientific and clinical aspects of the human microbiome.

Cambridge, Ma, Us

Candida albicans is a common member of the human microbiome, but in immunocompromised patients, it can become a lethal pathogen. Work in our group suggests this opportunistic fungal pathogen can rapidly evolve over the transition from commensal to pathogen. We are exploring the evolution of the host-pathogen interface using sequentially acquired clinical isolates and murine bone marrow derived macrophages. Ultimately, we hope to understand both how this interface evolves over time, and what factors drive that evolution (including drug and the immune response). Additionally, in collaboration with the Weitz group at Harvard University, I am working to develop a novel experimental pipeline that will facilitate the study of host-pathogen interactions. We are leveraging droplet microfluidics to infect, incubate, image, and interrogate host-pathogen pairs.This work is supported by a fellowship from the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation.

Cambridge, Ma, Us

In collaboration with the Weitz group at Harvard University, I am working to develop a novel experimental pipeline that will facilitate the study of host-pathogen interactions. We are leveraging droplet microfluidics to infect, incubate, image, and interrogate (via single cell RNA-Seq) host-pathogen pairs.

Boston, Massachusetts, Us

Following completion of my PhD, I worked on a collaborative project with the Flynn lab (University of Pittsburgh) to determine the dynamics of bacterial growth during tuberculosis infection. We exploited the cynomolgus macaque model of disease and novel technologies to determine that, despite binary systemic outcomes (active vs. latent infection), at a lesion level there is considerable heterogeneity within an animal and significant overlap between animals. Strikingly, even animals with active disease are capable of sterilizing tuberculosis lesions, despite those lesions having common origins and reaching similar bacterial burdens.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

I completed my PhD work on the evolution of drug resistant mycobacterium tuberculosis in the Fortune lab at the School of Public Health, through the Biological Sciences in Public Health program. This work is published in Nature Genetics (Ford et al, 2011 & 2013), BMC Genomics (Ragheb, Ford, et al 2013), and Tuberculosis (Ford et al, 2012). This work was supported by a Harvard Merit Fellowship. For more information on the Biological Sciences in Public Health program, please see : http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/bph.

Huntsville, Al, Us

Phd, Infectious Disease And Immunology

Ma, Biology

Bs, Biology