Dr. Katrine Whiteson is an Associate Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at UC Irvine, and the co-Director of the UCI Microbiome Center with 13 years of microbiome research experience. She studied Biochemistry at UC Berkeley (BA, 2000) and University of Chicago with Prof. Phoebe Rice (PhD, 2007). She first had the opportunity to study human-associated microbes at the University of Geneva Hospitals in 2008, and further developed her microbiome metagenomics and phage interest as a post-doc in Forest Rohwer's lab at San Diego State University.  Long term, she envisions a world where microbiome science can be an integrated component of solutions for health and environmental problems. Since starting at UCI in October 2014, she has established a research group including 7 PhD students (3 URM, and four have defended), four post-docs and several capable undergraduate and master’s level interns. Dr. Whiteson’s research is currently funded by the NIH, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the University of California Office of the President, and the Dry Beans Council. She has given ~100 seminars, and published ~70 papers. The Whiteson lab uses culture-independent metagenomics, metabolomics, and ecological statistics along with hypothesis driven, reductionist microbiology to answer questions about how individual human-associated microbial communities affect health. This has them hunting for bacteria, fungi and viruses in feces, sewage, sputum and other well-loved samples – the students are brave! Their favorite study designs are longitudinal, and they use metabolomics and sequencing along with in vitro culturing and experimental evolution to study the microbes, their metabolites, and impact on health. Dr. Whiteson has worked with UCI chef Jess VanRoo to develop a high-fiber cooking demonstration which can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-grVaFJki-c In 2017, Prof. Jennifer Martiny and I launched the UCI Microbiome Initiative, bringing together faculty from across seven schools at UCI. We also led the first National Microbiome Centers meeting in 2019, bringing 28 of 35 microbiome centers together, and launching the Microbiome Centers Consortia. I am also a member of the International Microbiome and Multi-Omics Standards Alliance (IMMSA) at NIST and a Senior Editor for the American Society for Microbiology journal mSystems.

You can find more information about her research here: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/whitesonlab/