Michael Surette (PhD) is Professor in the Department of Medicine and Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, in the Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University. Dr. Surette is also Director of the Farncombe Genomics Facility. He was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2018. Dr. Surette's research addresses the human microbiome of the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts in health and disease combining culture and culture-independent methods. In addition to understanding fundamental questions about microbiome composition and microbe-microbe /host interactions, the lab is interested in developing methods for accurate rapid microbial profiling that could improve management of disease and developing microbiome directed therapeutics. The lab also carries out the microbiome sequencing and analysis for two large Canadian cohorts.