Jessica Jarett, Ph.D.
Title
Computational Biologist
Company
AnimalBiome
Roundtable discussion:
The microbiome and its importance to pet nutrition and health — The microbiome has been receiving a lot of attention, and rightly so, as researchers discover its many connections to an animal’s entire body and physiology. Discover the latest research on microbiome research in pets and what it might mean for how we feed them. Specific topics and speakers include Feeding trillions of bacteria: Bridging the gap between nutrition, the microbiome and pet well-being — Juan Gomez Basauri, Ph.D., global director for companion animals, food ingredients and human health technologies, Alltech; Keeping the microbiome in mind: Best practices for diet trials — Jessica Jarett, Ph.D., computational biologist, AnimalBiome; and The effect of complex and diverse sialylated oligosaccharides on simulated dog gut microbiome and metabolites — Yemi Adesokan, Ph.D., chief scientific officer, Gnubiotics SA.
Presentation description:
Keeping the microbiome in mind: best practices for diet trials — Jarett informs pet food companies of the applications of microbiome testing in diet trials for companion animals. Through these trials, companies can determine if their product promotes a healthy gut microbiome, generate ideas for how to improve food formulation or validate product claims for packaging. However, an inappropriate study design or an insufficient number of samples can be costly mistakes resulting in inconclusive data. This talk will present key recommendations for designing studies on diet and the microbiome in companion animals. Attendees will gain a better understanding of the benefits and best practices for microbiome testing in diet trials.
Experience:
Jarett completed her postdoctoral training in single-cell genomics at the DOE Joint Genome Institute and received a Ph.D. in microbiology at the University of New Hampshire, where she studied the microbiomes of corals. She has been a computational biologist at AnimalBiome since 2018, where she conducts research on the effects of diet and fecal microbiota transplants on the microbiome of companion animals. Jarett has helped design and analyze data from many studies while at AnimalBiome, and presented results at ASM Microbe, Veterinary Innovation Summit and Microbiome Movement.
