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Dr. Gregor Reid is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Western University, and Scientist in Human Microbiome and Probiotics at the Lawson Health Research Institute. He retired from laboratory research in 2020 and is no longer taking students. 

Dr. Reid’s legacy comes from his focus on beneficial microbes, starting in 1982 when only 12 papers had been published on ‘probiotics’. As of February 2024, this number exceeds 47,000 papers by authors around the world. Dr. Reid's contribution cannot be understated. In 2001 and 2002, he chaired the United Nations - World Health Organization Expert Panel and Working Group on Probiotics that defined the modern term probiotics and set the standard for a field of science and commerce, the latter now exceeding $60 billion per annum.

Evidence for him being one of the world’s foremost experts on probiotics comes in many forms. Along with Canadian Urologist Dr. Andrew Bruce he developed novel probiotic therapies now used by several million people in over 35 countries. He helped acquire Canada’s largest ever donation for microbiology, $7 million for the endowed chair at Lawson. He has held 32 patents and published over 609 peer-reviewed publications in highly prestigious academic journals including Science, Lancet, JAMA, PNAS and various Nature journals. He has been highly sought for his lecturing skills, with over 650 talks in 54 countries. His Google Scholar H factor is 125 with over 61,000 citations as of February 2024. He was ranked the #3 microbiologist in Canada by research.com in 2022. 

He has been President of the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics, the leading organization on the science of these areas. His recognitions include: recipient of the Hellmuth Prize, the highest research honour conferred by The University of Western Ontario; the Distinguished Alumni Award presented by New Zealand’s leading institution, Massey University; an Honorary Doctorate in Biology from Orebro University in Sweden; the highest honour of the Canadian Society for Microbiologists for Career Achievement; Western University’s highest honour as Distinguished Professor. He is a member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada, the latter being an honour bestowed upon Canada’s distinguished scholars, artists and scientists, since the establishment of the society as Canada’s National Academy in 1883. His impact on Complementary and Alternative Medicine has been substantial, in Canada and beyond, illustrated by receipt of the prestigious Dr Rogers Prize. 

The expansion of beneficial microbes to One Health illustrates the importance of pioneers like him, who so early on and long before the Human Microbiome Project, recognized the importance of these organisms. His commitment to stewardship and excellence in appropriately documenting probiotics and in helping to define fermented foods and prebiotics, and differentiate them from probiotics, is recognized the world over. 

Dr. Reid was instrumental in the establishment of Western Heads East (WHE), an experiential learning program based out of Western University.  The program, led by Bob Gough, launched probiotic yogurt in rural Tanzanian communities in 2004 to help address the malnutrition and HIV/AIDS crises in the continent. It was recognized by the awarding of the AUCC Scotiabank Prize for Internationalization in 2010. The program expanded beyond HIV recipients to reach over 260,000 beneficiaries in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. This was made possible by funding from the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund and the creation of a novel sachet by Yoba-for-Life, a Dutch not-for-profit foundation. The sachet, costing under $1, contains two bacterial strains that ferment up to 100L of probiotic-rich yogurt or cereal or fruit. Yoba-for-Life continues to bring sachets to Africa, and in 2024, The Gregor Reid Award for Outstanding Scholars in Developing Nations was established by ISAPP to encourage young researchers to translate probiotics into tangible benefits for their countries. 

Dr. Reid's sphere of influence has widened through efforts to reduce the problem of honeybee colony collapse that endangers the world's food supply. The creation of a probiotic intervention to boost the insect's defenses and fight pathogens as well as offset the damage done by pesticides, has implications for beekeeping in North America and around the world. His final PhD student, Brendan Daisley is now pioneering this work at the University of Guelph. 

Though officially retired, Professor Reid has published a book, “Probiotics: A story about hope,” which reached #1 on Amazon for women’s health, and he continues to support his successor, Dr. Jeremy Burton, and students doing outstanding work through the lab at St. Joseph’s Hospital. 

Dr. Burton's appreciation of the microbial ecology of humans as a student was sparked by Professors Gerald Tannock and John Tagg at University of Otago in New Zealand.

In the early 2000s, he was fortunate enough to study the vaginal microbiota with then-emerging non-culture-based techniques. These showed that difficult-to-culture organisms, such as Lactobacillus iners, were frequent inhabitants of woman, but were not often detected by bacteriological culture-based methods.

After spending time in Industry he returned to the Lawson Health Research Institute and the Canadian Centre for Human Microbiome and Probiotics to continue working on the exciting area of translating microbial ecological research into real-world applications.

Dr. Dalton Wolfe is a Scientist at Parkwood Institute (SJHC London) and the leader of the R2P (Research 2 Practice) team that integrates clinical and research efforts to improve care and clinical outcomes. His primary research interest is in the area of knowledge mobilization and best practice implementation with a focus on physical activity and activity-based therapies in spinal cord injury and brain injury rehabilitation. He co-leads the Ontario SCI Implementation, Evaluation and Quality Care Consortium which focuses on implementation of quality indicators towards the enhancement of care across the 5-academic health centres involved in SCI rehabilitation in the province of Ontario. As part of the Parkwood Rehabilitation Innovations in Mobility Enhancement (PRIME) initiative he is focused on enhancing clinical decision-making to improve locomotor and other movement-related outcomes with activity-based therapies such as robotic, manual and FES-assisted therapies. As with many of the R2P initiatives this involves implementation science and participatory research methods to put in place practice-based research infrastructure that enables iterative knowledge generation as well as implementation.   Dr. Wolfe Is currently accepting students at the Masters, Doctoral, and post-doctoral levels.

Latest News: https://www.lawsonresearch.ca/lawsonlink/prime-team

Dr. Richardson is consultant psychiatrist and Medical Director of the Parkwood Operational Stress Injury (OSI) Clinic in London, Ontario. He is also the Scientific Director of the MacDonald Franklin OSI research Centre at the Parkwood Institute and a fellow with the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health. He has a Social Work degree from McGill University and completed his medical degree at Queen’s University and his fellowship in psychiatry at the University of Ottawa. He has more than 25 years of experience in the assessment and treatment of Veterans and Canadian forces members with PTSD and other operational stress injuries. Dr. Richardson has more than 50 published articles and book chapters in the area of Military and Veteran Mental Health including risk factors for PTSD and suicidal ideation, sleep disturbances, health care utilization, treatment outcomes and the impact of PTSD on quality-of-life.

Dr. Théberge is a certified Medical Physicist specialized in magnetic resonance. His current work involves providing support to the clinical MRI programs of St. Joseph’s Health Care and LHSC, teaching MRI at the graduate level in the Medical Biophysics program of the University of Western Ontario and conducting MR imaging research within the Lawson Health Research Institute’s Imaging Division.

With a solid background in physics, significant computer programming skills and knowledge and experience of neuropsychiatry, Dr. Théberge has been able to forge several alliances with clinical collaborators that allow him to conduct a wide range of brain imaging research, methodological developments and applications centered around the theme of neuropsychiatric disorders.

His current research in this area includes investigations of progressive changes in brain chemistry in schizophrenia using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, investigations of brain functional connectivity in major depression in youth as well as in individuals with schizophrenia or post-traumatic stress disorder. Most recently, his group is applying functional MRS methods to the study of glutamate dynamics during the performance of a cognitive task in these disorders.