ProfessorJulian Marchesi

Julian Marchesi graduated from Cardiff University with a PhD in biochemistry (1992) and became interested in the role bacteria play in ecosystem function. During his post-doctoral years he developed an interest in the contribution of uncultured microbes to the maintenance and function of ecosystems i.e. molecular microbial ecology. He subsequently secured a Wellcome Trust Fellowship which extended his molecular microbial ecology interest and investigated, with culture independent methods, the diversity and distribution of genes involved in biodegradation of priority pollutants in pristine environments. After a short time investigating the deep biosphere he obtained a Lectureship (2001) in the Department of Microbiology, University College Cork, Ireland where he transferred these “omic” skills into the human gut and started to investigate the human gut ecosystem in health and disease. After 7 years in UCC, he moved back to Cardiff University in 2008 to a senior lectureship, where he investigated the role of the gut microbiome in maintaining host health and initiating diseases not only of the gut, but throughout the host system. In 2013 he moved to Imperial and in 2016 was promoted to Professor at Imperial College London and holds the Chair In Digestive Health.

His work uses a variety of “omic” approaches such as metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metabonomics and molecular ecology. Over his 35 year career he has authored over 414 publications and has been a senior editor for ISME Journal. He was the current chair of the BSG's Gut Microbiota for Health Expert Panel and chaired the Microbiology Society's "Unlocking the Microbiome " working group and the subsequent publication. His current work is focusing on using stool transplants to modify the gut microbiome and is current the PI on the MAST Study at Imperial (https://www.imperial.ac.uk/metabolism-digestion-reproduction/research/digestive-diseases/hepatology--gastroenterology/mast-study/).