Dr. Curtis Huttenhower stands as a pioneering leader in the computational analysis of microbial ecosystems and their profound implications for human health. He currently serves as Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics in the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, with additional appointments in Immunology and Infectious Diseases. His academic journey began with undergraduate studies in computer science, mathematics, and chemistry at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, followed by industry experience at Microsoft. He further advanced his expertise through an MS in computational linguistics from Carnegie Mellon University before completing his PhD in computer science at Princeton University under the guidance of Olga Troyanskaya.
His groundbreaking research has fundamentally advanced our understanding of the human microbiome through the development of innovative computational frameworks that integrate metagenomic, metatranscriptomic, and other multi-omics data to decipher microbial community function. As a key contributor to the NIH Human Microbiome Project, he co-led the critical HMP2 Center focused on characterizing the gut microbial ecosystem in inflammatory bowel disease, establishing new standards for microbiome data analysis. His laboratory pioneered the Microbiome Quality Control Project and developed essential computational tools that have been adopted by researchers worldwide to analyze microbial community structure and function. These methodological innovations have enabled transformative insights into how microbial communities contribute to health and disease states, particularly in autoimmune conditions, with profound implications for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
Beyond his technical contributions, Dr. Huttenhower has demonstrated exceptional leadership in building the global microbiome research community through his directorship of the Harvard School of Public Health Microbiome Analysis Core and the NIDDK Human Microbiome Bioinformatics Resource. His vision for applying computational biology to public health challenges has attracted significant funding from NIH and other major agencies, supporting his ongoing work on understanding the microbiome's role in diverse health conditions including cancer and inflammatory diseases. As co-director of the Harvard Chan Microbiome in Public Health Center, he continues to advance translational research that bridges computational discovery with clinical applications. His current research focuses on developing precision approaches to profile microbial communities at population scale and ultimately harness microbiome knowledge to enable targeted interventions that improve human health outcomes across diverse populations.
