Dr. Samantha Gruenheid is a professor and chair of the department of microbiology and immunology at McGill University. Her research program applies expertise in microbiology, host intestinal biology, mouse models of intestinal infection and inflammation, and intestinal cell models to investigate host-microbe interactions in the gut. She is interested in the gut-brain axis in Parkinson’s disease (PD). In particular, her lab is investigating the roles that PD-related proteins play in host immune responses outside the brain, and how these may contribute to disease development. Dr. Gruenheid has been a recipient of a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) and a Senior Research Scholar award from the Fonds de Recherche du Quebec, and she is a fellow of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology.