2026 Symposium Speakers
The ISAPP 2026 symposium program features plenary speakers sharing cutting-edge research. Speakers are in order of program appearance.
Dr. Junki Miyamoto, PhD
Dr. Junki Miyamoto is an Associate Professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan. He received his PhD in Agriculture from Hiroshima University in 2017. His research focuses on diet-derived gut microbial metabolites and their roles in regulating host homeostasis. By employing interdisciplinary approaches, including microbiology, metabolomics, and nutritional science, he investigates host–microbiota interactions at molecular and physiological levels. His work aims to elucidate the mechanisms by which microbial metabolites mediate metabolic and immune functions, thereby linking dietary factors to host health. Through his research, he seeks to advance fundamental understanding of gut microbiota–host interactions and to contribute to the development of scientific bases for nutritional interventions and functional foods.
Prof. Yuji Naito, MD PhD
Yuji Naito, M.D., Ph.D., obtained his M.D. degree at the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan in 1983, and performed Ph.D. studies at the same university from 1983–1993. He is currently a Professor of Department of Human Immunology and Nutrition Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine. From 2017, his group has started the longevity cohort study in Kyotango, Japan, one of the world’s most intensively studied regions for healthy aging. Research conducted in this population has revealed distinctive lifestyle patterns, dietary habits, and biological signatures that together support extended healthspan. At the center of these findings lies the microbiota-gut-brain axis, a critical integrative system connecting metabolism, immunity, inflammation, and cognitive health.
Prof. Hannah D. Holscher, PhD RD
Prof. Hannah Holscher is an Associate Professor of Nutrition at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she also serves as Associate Director of the Personalized Nutrition Initiative and holds affiliations with the Division of Nutritional Sciences, the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Her research integrates clinical nutrition, microbiome science, and computational biology to explore how diet influences human health. She has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed publications and leads multidisciplinary research projects supported by government agencies, foundations, commodity boards, and private industry. Prof. Holscher has held leadership roles within the American Society for Nutrition and serves on the editorial boards of The Journal of Nutrition and Nutrition Research.
Prof. Michael Gänzle, PhD
Prof. Michael Gänzle is trained as Food Engineer at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany, and obtained his doctoral and post-doctoral degrees in Food Microbiology at the University of Hohenheim and the Technical University of Munich, respectively. He is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Food Microbiology and Probiotics at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2023. From 2021 to 2024, he was recognized as Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher. His research links microbial phylogeny, physiology and ecology to food quality, food safety and host health. More information is provided on the institutional homepage.
Prof. Takane Katayama, PhD
Takane Katayama received his Ph.D. in Applied Microbiology from Kyoto University in 1999 and was appointed Professor at Kyoto University in 2015. He became interested in gut microbial research following the isolation of two novel glycosidases from bifidobacteria in 2002, and since then, his work has focused on the functional analysis of bifidobacterial genes and enzymes involved in the metabolism of host-derived carbohydrates, including human milk oligosaccharides and mucin O-glycans, as well as aromatic amino acids. His research has contributed to elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying Bifidobacterium–human symbiosis.
Dr. Susan Woods, PhD
Dr. Susan Woods established her Gut Cancer research group at Adelaide University within the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute in 2019. She trained both in Australia and in San Francisco, USA, with Nobel Laureate J. Michael Bishop, and is the Gastroenterology Society of Australia (GESA) Bushell Research Fellow. Her group is supported by Australian and US (NIH) Government funding, GESA and Hospital Research Foundation funding. Research in Susan’s group aims to improve early detection methods for gut cancers, so that they may be identified at a point when most can be cured. This involves the application of synthetic biology approaches to engineer bacteria to act as disease detectors in the gut. The team is also developing engineered bacteria to deliver treatments directly to tumours, to reduce unwanted side-effects of treatment. Her group is assessing the clinical utility of patient tissue samples cultured as organoids, to guide choice of personalised treatments for advanced disease.
Prof. Laurence Zitvogel, MD PhD
Institut Gustave Roussy, France
Dr. Yukihiro Furusawa, PhD
Yukihiro Furusawa, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering at Toyama Prefectural University, Japan. He earned his BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Toyama (2006), completed an MS program in Pharmaceutical Sciences (2008), and received his PhD in Medical Science from the University of Toyama (2012). After his doctorate, Dr. Furusawa served as a Postdoctoral Researcher at RIKEN RCAI (Research Center for Allergy and Immunology) and as a Project Assistant Professor at The University of Tokyo, focusing on mucosal immunology. He subsequently joined the Faculty of Pharmacy at Keio University as an Assistant Professor (2014). Since 2015, he has been at Toyama Prefectural University, where he advanced to Associate Professor in 2020 and moved to Pharmaceutical Engineering in 2021.
Prof. Susanne Brix, PhD
Susanne Brix is Professor of Immune–Microbiota Interactions at the Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark (DTU). She earned her MSc in Biotechnology from DTU and completed her PhD in Nutritional Immunology in 2005, during which she was a visiting researcher at the Nestlé Research Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland. She heads the Section for Medical Biotechnology and has led the Disease Systems Immunology research group since 2014. Her research focuses on understanding host-microbiota interactions and immune regulation in health and disease. Prof. Brix is Academic Leader of the Technical University Hospital (TUH), a partnership between DTU and 16 hospitals, where she is responsible for strengthening clinical-academic integration and advancing cross-disciplinary research infrastructures that link innovation, patient needs, and health technologies. She is an elected member of the Danish Academy of Natural Sciences; chair of the Research Council for Technology and Production Sciences, The Independent Research Fund Denmark; and serves on several national and international steering committees, including the Million Microbiomes of Humans Porject.