Major Symposium B: Microbiome Influence on Epithelial-immune Crosstalk

Thursday, April 16, 2026

8:00 AM - 11:15 AM US ET

Location: Ballroom

Chair(s)

Christopher Johnston, PhD

Associate Professor,
Univ. of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Cntr.
Houston, Texas, United States
Laura Kiessling, PhD (she/her/hers)

Professor
MIT
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Tiffany Scharschmidt, MD (she/her/hers)

Professor
UCSF, United States
Dharti Shantaram, PhD (she/her/hers)

Post Doctoral Scholar
Department of Internal Medicine
Ohio State University College of Medicine
Columbus, Ohio, United States
Thaddeus Stappenbeck, MD PhD

Chair Inflammation and Immunity
Cleveland Clinic, Missouri, United States
Himanshi Tanwar (she/her/hers)

Postdoctoral Fellow
AOST, Dental School
University of Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
RX

Ramnik Xavier

Professor and Chair
Harvard Med. Sch., Broad Inst., USA

Disclosure(s):

Tiffany C. Scharschmidt, MD: No relevant disclosure to display

Christopher D. Johnston, PhD: No financial relationships to disclose

Laura L. Kiessling, PhD: No financial relationships to disclose

Dharti Shantaram, PhD: No financial relationships to disclose

Thaddeus Stappenbeck, MD PhD: No relevant disclosure to display

Himanshi Tanwar: No financial relationships to disclose

8:00 AM - 8:33 AM US ET

Tumor-infiltrating microbes and their impact on the tumor immune microenvironment
Speaker: Christopher D. Johnston, PhD – Univ. of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Cntr.
8:33 AM - 9:06 AM US ET

Probing the function of human immune lectins
Speaker: Laura L. Kiessling, PhD (she/her/hers) – MIT
9:06 AM - 9:39 AM US ET

Early life immune-microbe crosstalk in skin
Speaker: Tiffany C. Scharschmidt, MD (she/her/hers) – UCSF
9:39 AM - 9:54 AM US ET

Pseudomonas instigates neutrophil accumulation in adipose tissue and insulin resistance in obesity
Author: Dharti Shantaram, PhD (she/her/hers) – Ohio State University College of Medicine
9:54 AM - 10:27 AM US ET

Micro-communities of microbes that modulate immune responses
Speaker: Thaddeus Stappenbeck, MD PhD – Cleveland Clinic
10:27 AM - 10:42 AM US ET

Role of Periodontitis in Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Author: Himanshi Tanwar (she/her/hers) – University of Maryland
10:42 AM - 11:15 AM US ET

Gut microbes, metabolites, and mucosal homeostasis
Speaker: Ramnik J. Xavier – Harvard Med. Sch., Broad Inst.