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Rob Knight (biologist)

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Rob Knight (born 1976 in Dunedin, New Zealand)[1] is a professor at the University of California, San Diego and the co-founder of the American Gut Project. he is also a co-founder of the Earth Microbiome Project. His lab's research involves the development of laboratory and computational techniques to characterize the microbiomes of humans, animals, and the environment.

Knight completed a BSc in biochemistry at the University of Otago and a PhD at Princeton University on the Origin and Evolution of the Genetic Code in 2001.[2] Until 2014, he was a professor at the University of Colorado – Boulder.[3]

He did an IAmA on reddit and also taught a microbiome course on Coursera. He gave a TED Talk in 2014 on the role microbes play on our health.[4][5] Later this idea was expanded into the book Follow Your Gut: The Enormous Impact of Tiny Microbes,[6][7][8] written with science journalist Brendan Buhler and published by Simon & Schuster.

In 2015, he received the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science.[9]

American Gut Project

The American Gut Project claims to be the world's largest crowdfunded and crowdsourced scientific research project[10]. The project aims to characterize the human microbiome.[11] Participants make a monetary contribution and submit personal microbiome samples, and receive information about their microbiomes.[12]

References

  1. ^ Gewin, Virginia (July 11, 2012). "Microbes en masse: The sequencing machine". Nature. 35-year-old, Knight
  2. ^ Gibb, John. "Prestigious award delights scientist". The Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  3. ^ Robbins, Gary (January 11, 2015). "UCSD hires star biologist Rob Knight". The San Diego Union-Tribune.
  4. ^ "Rob Knight: How our microbes make us who we are". TED. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  5. ^ "Colorado biochemist Rob Knight on TED: Microbes make us who we are". Genetic Literacy Project. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  6. ^ "TED Book: Follow Your Gut". TED. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  7. ^ "Ideas worth spreading about microbes: review of "Follow Your Gut" by Rob Knight". Gut Microbiota News Watch. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  8. ^ "I'm Professor Rob Knight. Let's talk about the lessons we can learn from poop...I mean, the millions of marvelous microscopic creatures inhabiting your gut". reddit.
  9. ^ "CSE Faculty Affiliate Honored with Vilcek Prize | Computer Science and Engineering". www.cse.ucsd.edu. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  10. ^ "About Knight Lab". American Gut. 2015-11-01. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  11. ^ "FAQs". American Gut. 2015-11-01. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
  12. ^ "We Are Citizen Science". American Gut. 2015-11-01. Retrieved 2017-09-19.