B. Brett Finlay, OCOBCFRSC (born 4 April 1959)[1] is a Canadian microbiologist well known for his contributions to understanding how microbes cause disease in people and developing new tools for fighting infections, as well as the role the microbiota plays in human health and disease. Science.ca describes him as one of the world's foremost experts on the molecular understanding of the ways bacteria infect their hosts.[2] He also led the SARS Accelerated Vaccine Initiative [3](SAVI) and developed vaccines to SARS and a bovine vaccine to E. coli O157:H7. His current research interests focus on pathogenic E. coli and Salmonella pathogenicity, and the role of the microbiota in infections, asthma, and malnutrition. He is currently the UBC Peter Wall Distinguished Professor[4] and a Professor in the Michael Smith Laboratories, Microbiology and Immunology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,[5] and Co-director and Senior Fellow for the CIFAR Humans and Microbes program.[6] He is also co-author of the book Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World and The Whole-Body Microbiome: How to Harness Microbes - Inside and Out - For Lifelong Health. Finlay is the author of over 500 publications in peer-reviewed journals and served as editor of several professional publications for many years.
Finlay's lab is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia, and involves a multidisciplinary research program exploring how microbes contribute to both human health and disease.[7] The lab specifically focuses on type III secreted virulence factors from Salmonella and pathogenic E. coli, how microbiota influence infectious diarrhea outcomes, and the role of the microbiota in asthma, malnutrition, and environmental enteropathy. One of his graduate students there was medical microbiologist Inna Sekirov.[8]
Diet and specific microbial exposure trigger features of environmental enteropathy in a novel murine model. Brown EM, Finlay BB, et al. Nat Commun. 2015 Aug 4;6:7806.
Early infancy microbial and metabolic alterations affect risk of childhood asthma. Arrieta MC, Stiemsma LT, Dimitriu PA,; CHILD Study Investigators, Mohn WW, Turvey SE, Finlay BB, et al. Sci Transl Med. 2015 Sep 30;7(307):307ra152. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aab2271
Common themes in microbial pathogenicity revisited. BB Finlay, S Falkow. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 61 (2), 136-169
Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) transfers its receptor for intimate adherence into mammalian cells. B Kenny, R DeVinney, M Stein, DJ Reinscheid, EA Frey, BB Finlay. Cell 91 (4), 511-520
Exploitation of mammalian host cell functions by bacterial pathogens. BB Finlay, P Cossart. Science 276 (5313), 718-725
Molecular mechanisms of Escherichia coli pathogenicity. MA Croxen, BB Finlay. Nature Reviews Microbiology 8 (1), 26-38
Manipulation of host-cell pathways by bacterial pathogens. AP Bhavsar, JA Guttman, BB Finlay. Nature 449 (7164), 827-834
Finlay has co-authored, with Marie-Claire Arrieta, a book for general audiences, Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving your child from an oversanitized world,[23] about the critical role microbes play in early childhood development, having a major impact on both health and disease. It was published by Algonquin Books (USA) and Greystone (Canada) in Sept 2016, and is being translated into 11 languages
In The Whole-Body Microbiome: How to harness microbes - inside and out - for lifelong health, Finlay and his environmental gerontologist daughter Dr. Jessica Finlay focus on the teeming world of microbes everywhere in and around us. In this book, the Finlays suggest improvements to lifestyle, diet, and household practices to promote the right kind of microbial exposure.[24]
Editorships
1992-1999 Trends in Microbiology: Infection, Virulence, and Pathogenesis
1993-97 Editor, Infection and Immunity section, Canadian Journal of Microbiology
1994-02 Editorial Board, Infection and Immunity
1997-2005 Editorial Board, Molecular Microbiology
1997–present Editorial Board, Current Opinion in Microbiology
1997-2010 Editorial Board, Traffic
1998–present Editorial Board, Microbes and Infection
1999–present Advisory Board, International Journal of Medical Microbiology
2000-2003 Editor, Infection and Immunity (20 manuscripts/month)
2000–present Editorial Board, Current Drug Targets - Infectious Disorders
2001–present Section Head (Cellular Microbiology and Pathogenesis) for Faculty 1000, an online service to organize and evaluate the life sciences literature
2001–present Editorial Board, Current Biology
2003 Section Editor (Cytology), American Society for Microbiology book, "E. coli and Salmonella"
2005-2008 Reviews Editor, PLoS (Public Library of Science) Pathogens
February 2011 Section Editor, Current Opinion in Microbiology, Section: Host-microbe interactions: Bacteria.
2011–present Member, Senior Medical Expert Panel, Nature Index
2013–present Senior Editor, Future Microbiology
2013–present Associate Editor, Gut Microbes
2014–present Trends in Microbiology
Ventures
Finlay has been a scientific founder of the following companies:
Inimex Pharmaceuticals Inc., developer of medicines that use selective modulation of the innate immune response.[25] The company's lead program was acquired by Soligenix.
Vedanta Biosciences Inc., rationally design medicines based on consortia of human commensal bacteria to treat disease, using insights from microbial ecology, mucosal immunology, and human interventional studies.[26]
Commense, focused on preventing and treating disease through microbiome-based interventions in infancy and early childhood[27][28]
Microbiome Insights Inc., leading microbiome testing company focused on next generation sequencing and bioinformatic analysis[29]
