Ara Katz
Co-Founder, Co-CEO
Dr. Reid is our Chief Scientist. He is a world-renowned specialist in beneficial microbes, developing novel probiotic therapies used by millions of people.
He is perhaps best known as the Chair of the United Nations World Health Organization Expert Panel on Probiotics, leading the group that authored the globally accepted definition of ‘probiotics’. Additionally, he served as President of the International Scientific Association of Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) and is an inductee into the prestigious Royal Society of Canada. Currently, he is the Director of the Canadian R&D Centre for Human Microbiome and Probiotics.
Dr. Reid has created transformative impact around the world through the application of beneficial microbes. He founded Yoghurt Mamas’ in East Africa for local HIV-positive women to operate probiotic yoghurt kitchens in their communities to draw an income for their families whilst stimulating significant economic development and fostering gender equality. Through the dedication and hard work of these women, yoghurt kitchens have become an integral part of the community life wherein they also act as hubs of health information in the community.
Dr. Gregor Reid is focused on the development of novel applications for single-celled bacteria in order to address some of the world’s most daunting environmental challenges which currently includes saving the honeybees’ future.
Dr. Reid has authored over 520 peer-reviewed papers published in scientific and medical journals, has been a reviewer for 48 international agencies (including the National Institute of Health) and 112 scientific journals; he has been awarded 28 patents and cited over 27,000 times.
Key Publications:
Reid G. “Probiotics: definition, scope and mechanisms of action.” Best Practice & Research Clinical Gastroenterology, Volume 30, Issue 1, Pages 17-25, 2016 Feb. Web 2015 Dec 19. Accessed 2018 May 30. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27048893. DOI: 10.1016/j.bpg.2015.12.001
Collins S, Reid G. “Distant Site Effects of Ingested Prebiotics.” Nutrients. 8(9): 523, 2016 Sep. Web 2016 Aug 26. Accessed 2018 May 30. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5037510/. DOI: 10.3390/nu8090523
Reid G, Younes J A, Van der Mei H C, Gloor G B, Knight R, Busscher H J. “Microbiota restoration: natural and supplemented recovery of human microbial communities.” Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 9, pages 27–38, 2011. Accessed 2018 May 30. https://www.nature.com/articles/nrmicro2473. DOI: 10.1038/nrmicro2473
Kort R, Westerik N, Serra L M, Douillard F P, Gottstein W, Mukisa I M, Tuijn C J, Basten L, Hafkamp B, Meijer W C, Teusink B, de Vos W M, Reid G, Sybesma W. “A novel consortium of Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Streptococcus thermophilus for increased access to functional fermented foods.” Microbial Cell Factories 14:195, 2015 Dec 8. Accessed 2018 May 30. https://microbialcellfactories.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12934-015-0370-x#Declarations DOI: 10.1186/s12934-015-0370-x
Urbaniak C, Reid G. “The potential influence of the microbiota and probiotics on women during long spaceflights.” Womens Health (Lond). 2016;12(2):193-8.Web 2016 Feb 22. Accessed 2018 May 30. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26901697. DOI: 10.2217/whe.15.101
Reid G, Burton J P. “Urinary incontinence: Making sense of the urinary microbiota in clinical urology.” Nature Reviews Urology volume 13, pages 567–568, 2016 Sep 26. Accessed 2018 May 30. https://www.nature.com/articles/nrurol.2016.182. DOI: 10.1038/nrurol.2016.182
Gan X T, Ettinger G, Huang C X, Burton J P, Haist J V, Rajapurohitam V, Sidaway J E, Martin G, Gloor G B, Swann J R, Reid G, Karmazyn M. “Probiotic administration attenuates myocardial hypertrophy and heart failure after myocardial infarction in the rat.” Heart Failure, 7:491-499. 2014. Accessed 2018 May 30. http://circheartfailure.ahajournals.org/content/7/3/491. DOI: 10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.113.000978
Bisanz J E, Enos M K, Mwanga J R, Changalucha J, Burton J P, Gloor G B, Reid G. “Randomized open-label pilot study of the influence of probiotics and the gut microbiome on toxic metal levels in Tanzanian pregnant women and school children.” mBio. 5(5): e01580-14.2014 Sep-Oct. Accessed 2018 May 30. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4196227/. DOI: 10.1128/mBio.01580-14
Smits SA, Leach J, Sonnenburg ED, Gonzalez CG, Lichtman JS, Reid G, Knight R, Manjurano A, Changalucha J, Elias JE, Dominguez-Bello MG, Sonnenburg JL. “Seasonal cycling in the gut microbiome of the Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania.” Science. 357(6353):802-806, 2017 Aug 25. Accessed 2018 May 28. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/357/6353/802. DOI: 10.1126/science.aan4834
Lenoir-Wijnkoop I, Gerlier L, Roy D, Reid G. “The clinical and economic impact of probiotics consumption on respiratory tract infections: projections for Canada.” PLoS One. 11(11):e0166232. 2016 Nov 10. Accessed 2018 May 30. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0166232. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0166232