Dr. Rob Holt

Dr. Holt's lab at the BC Genome Science Centre has been engaged in tumor microbiome analysis for 15+ years and he was one of three Scientific Advisors to the NIH funded Human Microbiome Project, initiated in 2008. Currently, Dr. Holt is an investigator on the OPTIMISTICC (Opportunity To Investigate the Microbiome’s Impact on Science and Treatment In Colorectal Cancer) project funded by the Cancer Research UK Grand Challenges program (https://www.optimisticc.org/), that aims to comprehensively map the colorectal cancer microbiome and develop microbiome-targeted therapies for colorectal cancer. He co-leads Work Package 6 of this program with the goal developing vaccines against oncomicrobes linked to colorectal cancer. Dr. Holt's lab initially identified the link between F.nucleatum and colorectal cancer using the same metagenomic approach we will deploy in the C3-IMPACT-MB research project to profile the cholangiocarcinoma microbiome and identify targetable links.