Dr. Simone Brixius-Anderko earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Saarland University (Germany) in Prof. Rita Bernhardt’s lab where she developed a sustainable biotechnological process to generate pharmaceutical steroids with human cytochrome P450 enzymes (P450, CYP). She transitioned to the lab of Prof. Emily Scott at the University of Michigan (College of Pharmacy) to receive training in P450 X-ray protein crystallography. She joined Pitt Pharmacy as an assistant professor in 2021 and studies P450-mediated metabolism using structure-function to find new treatment approaches for human diseases. She won numerous awards including an NIH R35 MIRA in 2024. She is a passionate mentor and deeply enjoys training and teaching the next generation of scientists.

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Elizabeth N. Bess is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Molecular Biology & Biochemistry at the University of California, Irvine. Professor Bess received her B.S. degree from the University of Utah in Biological Chemistry in 2009. In 2015, she earned her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Utah, working with Professor Matt Sigman to develop methods for mathematically describing and predicting outcomes of chemical reactions. As a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) postdoctoral fellow of the Life Sciences Research Foundation, Professor Bess conducted research in the microbiology lab of Professor Peter Turnbaugh at the University of California, San Francisco (2015–2018). There, she discovered how gut bacteria convert molecules abundant in plant-rich diets to new molecules that have anti-breast cancer effects and traced this metabolic process using gnotobiotic mice.

In her independent lab at UC Irvine, the heart of Bess Lab research is creating molecularly detailed blueprints linking gut microbiota function to human health. Specifically, Bess Lab research is revealing the gut microbiome’s role in onset and treatment of Parkinson’s disease, digestion of dietary lignin fiber, and modulation of the effectiveness of anti-breast cancer drug tamoxifen. Her research team’s goal is to enable better prediction and prevention of disease by accounting for the uniqueness of each person’s gut microbiome.

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Elizabeth N. Bess is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Molecular Biology & Biochemistry at the University of California, Irvine. Professor Bess received her B.S. degree from the University of Utah in Biological Chemistry in 2009. In 2015, she earned her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Utah, working with Professor Matt Sigman to develop methods for mathematically describing and predicting outcomes of chemical reactions. As a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) postdoctoral fellow of the Life Sciences Research Foundation, Professor Bess conducted research in the microbiology lab of Professor Peter Turnbaugh at the University of California, San Francisco (2015–2018). There, she discovered how gut bacteria convert molecules abundant in plant-rich diets to new molecules that have anti-breast cancer effects and traced this metabolic process using gnotobiotic mice.

In her independent lab at UC Irvine, the heart of Bess Lab research is creating molecularly detailed blueprints linking gut microbiota function to human health. Specifically, Bess Lab research is revealing the gut microbiome’s role in onset and treatment of Parkinson’s disease, digestion of dietary lignin fiber, and modulation of the effectiveness of anti-breast cancer drug tamoxifen. Her research team’s goal is to enable better prediction and prevention of disease by accounting for the uniqueness of each person’s gut microbiome.

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