Fun fact: Did you know that the microbiome plays a key role in how our immune system functions and in our overall health? In fact, around 70% of our body’s immune cells are located in the gut!

To shed some light on what that could mean in the context of JIA, we are excited to welcome Kelsey Thompson as a speaker at our upcoming webinar, “What’s your Gut Telling You? JIA and the Gut Microbiome Connection” happening on Tuesday, November 29.

Kelsey hosts an impressive resume as a Research Associate in the Huttenhower Laboratory at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Department of Biostatistics and an affiliate with the Broad Institute. Kelsey also has a Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology from Texas Tech University and a B.S. in Marine Science from the University of New England.

And her resume continues to grow; outside of her regular research, she teaches several short courses for a variety of audiences on microbial community analysis. In fact, she just returned from teaching a one-day course in Pittsburg at the SEATAC North America 43rd Annual Meeting. Additionally, she teaches an annual scientific training course on metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and multiomics for microbial community studies in Germany – now that’s a mouthful!

In early 2020, Kelsey presented on ‘The gut microbiome in patients with inflammatory arthritis’ at Oxford Talks at the University of Oxford. Her work aims to help answer some of our most pressing questions such as: could disturbances to the microbiome make JIA symptoms worse? What happens when there is a presence of undesirable microbes? Is it possible that they could trigger an immune self-targeting of the joints (i.e. arthritis)?

So, how does Kelsey’s research begin to answer these questions? Her work involves studying DNA from actual stool samples to identify potential microbial culprits in kids with JIA.

Kelsey has also been involved in a myriad of other projects while with the Huttenhower Lab, including the role of dietary polyphenols (compounds that we get through certain plant-based foods, like blueberries!) in gut composition, the impact of exposure to mixtures of toxicants, and the gut microbiome in colorectal cancer.

We hope you’ll join us to learn more about Kelsey’s research and how the JIA-microbiome connection findings may even open doors to new treatment or prevention strategies in the future.

Our session will be offered live in both English and French.
Register at cassieandfriends.ca/event/gutmicrobiome and bring your questions for our live Q+A!

In the meantime, you can learn more about Kelsey’s work below:

● Research on inflammatory arthritis and the gut microbiome here: https://hcmph.sph.harvard.edu/inflammatory-arthritis-and-the-gut-microbiome/

● Research on the gut microbiome in juvenile idiopathic arthritis specifically is here: https://hcmph.sph.harvard.edu/the-gut-microbiome-in-juvenile-idiopathic-arthritis/