(WOBURN, MA) September 12, 2024 – OpenBiome, a pioneering nonprofit microbiome health organization, will explore the dramatic growth of microbiome science and its potential as a game-changing solution for malnutrition during its session “Why the Gut Microbiome is Critical to Children’s Health: Harnessing Microbiome Science to End Malnutrition” on September 25, 2024, at the Science Summit at the UN General Assembly.

Three million children suffer from malnutrition, which contributes to nearly half of all children’s deaths worldwide. This takes a severe toll on the health and wealth of those afflicted and their respective countries, with malnutrition robbing global GNP by some USD$3.5 trillion in lost productivity and job growth. The most significant burden falls on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), with undernutrition affecting one out of five children, robbing them of their childhood and impacting their long-term health, learning and earning power.

“We cannot waste another moment. We know well the health, economic and policy implications if we do not urgently commit to solving malnutrition with new science and new tools,” said Julie Barrett O-Brien, CEO, OpenBiome. “In recent years, microbiome science has transformed approaches to seemingly intractable diseases such as antibiotic resistance, gut disease and cancer. There have been few therapeutic advances in malnutrition over the past 30 years. It’s time to explore how microbiome science can help lead to solutions to the SDGs, particularly around malnutrition.”

The interactive panel convenes leading scientists, funders and changemakers from across the globe to prompt ideas and action to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Offered in person and via livestream, panel participants are:

Julie Barrett O’Brien
Chief Executive Officer, OpenBiome
Dr. Majdi Osman
Chief Medical Officer, OpenBiome
Dr. Jeffrey I. Gordon
Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor and Director of the Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology at Washington University in St. Louis
Dr. Billo Tall
Manager, Clinical Research, Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Senegal
Dr. Tahmeed Ahmed
Executive Director, icddr,b, Bangladesh
Dr. Vanessa Ridaura
Senior Program Officer, Microbiome Products, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Dr. Nigel Rollins
Medical Officer, WHO Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Aging
Hilina Belete
General Manager, Hilina Enriched Foods, Ethiopia