Curtis Huttenhower

Curtis Huttenhower is a computational biologist and bioinformatician specializing in microbiome research who left Harvard University to join the University of British Columbia's School of Biomedical Engineering and Faculty of Science in Vancouver, Canada, as an Eddie Goldenberg Research Chair of Canada in Microbiome Sciences.

The appointment was announced August 27, 2026 as part of UBC's first cohort of nine Eddie Goldenberg Research Chairs, with his move anticipated for summer 2027.

At Harvard, Huttenhower is a professor of computational biology and bioinformatics in the T.H. Chan School of Public Health's Departments of Biostatistics and Immunology and Infectious Diseases, where he co-directs the Harvard Chan Microbiome in Public Health Center, and an associate member of the Broad Institute's Microbiome Program. His lab develops computational methods linking human population epidemiology to the molecular and chemical function of microbial communities, integrating metagenomic, metatranscriptomic, and other microbial 'omics data to understand the microbiome's role in health and diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer, with an eye toward diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Over more than 15 years on faculty, Huttenhower has co-led analysis for major national initiatives including both phases of the NIH Human Microbiome Project and the coordinating center for the Human Virome Program. His research aims to move microbiome science beyond correlation toward the causal mechanisms needed for clinical translation and patient stratification, and he has been active in the broader biotech community through advisory and consulting work aimed at translating academic research into real-world health applications.