Sarkis K Mazmanian, PhD, is the Luis & Nelly Soux Professor of Microbiology in the Division of Biology & Biological Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles, where Dr. Mazmanian also received his doctoral training in microbiology and immunology studying the mechanism by which Gram-positive pathogens anchor surface protein adhesins during bacterial infection. He was a Helen Hay Whitney Post-doctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School where he studied how symbiotic bacteria promote healthy maturation of the immune system. He was promoted to assistant professor at Harvard Medical School in 2006, and later that year moved to Caltech to start his independent laboratory. Dr. Mazmanian has won numerous awards including a Searle Scholar, Young Investigator of the Year at Harvard Medical School, Damon Runyon Innovation Award, was named by Discover Magazine as one of the “Best Brains in Science under 40” and recently received the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” award. His laboratory currently focuses on the study of beneficial bacterial molecules from the human gut microbiome as novel therapies for immunologic and neurologic disorders. This research has led to identification of novel drug candidates being developed for Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Parkinson’s disease. He is a founder of 2 biotech companies and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of over a dozen companies, academic centers and not-for-profit foundations. Most importantly, Dr. Mazmanian has trained numerous students and fellows who have gone on to successful independent careers in academia, industry, and medicine.