Microbial Genomics Platform

Our vision is to use microbial genomics to harness the power of the microbiome for better living.

Our mission is to use microbial genomics for microbiome research to understand which microbes are present and to gain a detailed understanding of the effect of the microbiome on the host environment including immune cell function health and disease. In alignment with the overall IMC mission, the Microbial Genomics Platform also offers the latest cutting-edge technologies for advancement of microbiome research to a broad audience of researchers (internal and external), industry, and government including animal health, agriculture, energy and the environment. The IMC promotes standardization of genomics protocols and is developing a global network for collaborations and partnerships to further enable translation of microbiome research.

Dr. Laura Sycuro is an Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary and Faculty Lead for the Microbial Genomics and Data Science Platforms at the IMC. Her MSc/PhD dual-degree training in Epidemiology and Molecular Biology at the University of Washington was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Upon completing her postdoctoral fellowship at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Dr. Sycuro focused her independent research program on the microbiome of women and their neonates. Serving as Co-Principal Investigator of the Alberta BLOOM birth cohort initiative, she was recently honoured as a CIHR Early Career Investigator in Maternal Health. In 2018, Dr. Sycuro was also appointed Functional Omics Lead for the IMPACTT Pan-Canadian Microbiome Core. Her work using genetic and genomic approaches to understand how members of the human microbiota cause disease has been published in PLoS Pathogens, the Journal of Infectious Diseases, and Cell.