Junior Editorial Board

Dr. Ryan Chanyi received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology in 2014 from the University of Western Ontario (Canada) under the supervision of Dr. Susan Koval studying a group of bacterial predators known as Bdellovibrio and like organisms. He then spent 3 years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Canadian Centre for Human Microbiome and Probiotic Research within the Lawson Health Research Institute in the laboratory of Dr. Jeremy Burton. He worked on a variety of projects focused on the xenobiotic metabolism of specific pharmaceutical compounds by members of the human intestinal microbiome. Here he developed an in vitro chemostat model of the colonic microbiome and was able to mimic microbiological changes that occur in castrate-resistant prostate cancer patients receiving androgen-deprivation therapy. He isolated members of the colonic microbiome that were able to metabolize the main pharmaceutical compound patients receive, Abiraterone, demonstrating the capacity of the microbiome to metabolize cancer therapeutics. He also worked on other various projects focusing on developing novel probiotic candidates based on their metabolic potential. In 2018, Dr. Chanyi moved to New Zealand as a postdoctoral research fellow within the Food and Bio-based Products group at AgResearch Ltd. His research focused on developing high throughput methodologies for accelerating bacterial evolution to enhance commercial starter strain metabolic potential and produce new flavors and textural properties of fermented products. He is an affiliated researcher with the Riddet Centre of Research Excellence at Massey University (New Zealand).

Lactic acid bacteria, Bacterial phenotype evolution, Bacterial metabolism, Food fermentation, Xenobiotic metabolism