Dr. Dana Binyamin
Dana Binyamin had the opportunity to train in a microbiology lab as an undergraduate life sciences student, which introduced her to the world of research and led her to pursue advanced degrees in the field. In her doctoral work in the Medical Sciences Department of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar-Ilan University, Dr. Binyamin explored the role of microbial communities (the microbiome) in the gut in aging and age-related diseases, ultimately highlighting the importance of maintaining a healthy gut microbiome throughout lifespan. She also investigated the microbiome in pregnant women with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), highlighting the implications of pregnancy on the disease, and the susceptibility to IBD development in their children. Her work in this two projects demonstrated how microbial dynamics influence metabolic health, immune function, and disease susceptibility. Dr. Binyamin’s PhD was supported for several years by the Adams Fellowship Program of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, an honor awarded to only seven students in Israel each year.
As a postdoc in the Department of Pathology at Stanford School of Medicine, Dr. Binyamin research will focus on the mechanisms underlying microbiome-host interactions, specifically through the metabolites the microbiome produces or modifies. She hopes to gain a better understanding of human disease by focusing on the host-microbiome interface, examining the effect of bacterial populations on a host in a diseased or health-promoting state, through the gut’s physiology, the immune system, and the brain.
Dr. Binyamin’s goal is to design targeted interventions by manipulating the microbiome for therapeutic purposes to improve disease prevention strategies, treatment, and health.