Jeffrey I. Gordon

Jeffrey Ivan Gordon^[1] (born c. 1947) is a biologist and the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor and Director of The Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences & Systems Biology at Washington University School of Medicine.^[2] He is internationally known for his research on gastrointestinal development^[3] and for founding the field of human microbiome research.^[4] His research has revolutionized our understanding of the human microbiome and its roles in health and disease, particularly with regard to nutrition, digestion and metabolism.^[5][6]

Gordon’s research has significantly advanced scientific understanding of the human gut microbiome as a microbial “organ” that affects human health and disease beyond gastrointestinal health.^[7] Much of his work has focused on addressing the global health challenge of childhood undernutrition.^[8] Central questions that Gordon and his lab are pursuing include how our gut microbial communities influence human health, what interventions will repair microbial communities for an individual or a population to optimize healthy development, and how to create local infrastructures to deliver treatment in affordable, culturally acceptable, appetizing foods.^[9] He and his team identified underdeveloped gut microbiota as a cause of childhood malnutrition^[10] and found that therapeutic food aimed at repairing the gut microbiome is superior to a widely used standard therapeutic food to treat childhood malnutrition.^[11] Unlike standard therapeutic foods, these microbiome-directed foods improve long-term effects of malnutrition, including problems with metabolism, bone growth, immune function and brain development.^[11]

Gordon has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (2001; Medical Physiology and Metabolism Section Chair, 2010-2013),^[12] the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2004),^[13] the National Academy of Medicine (2008),^[14] and the American Philosophical Society (2014).^[15]