Draft:Jacques Ravel

Jacques Ravel is an American microbiologist and professor, currently serving as Director at the Institute for Genome Sciences and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. His academic work focuses on the dynamic between microbiome and women's health, and has included research on the role of the vaginal microbiome in protecting against infections, currently explored through LUCA Biologics as part of Seed. Ravel is currently director of the Collaborative Research Center on Sexually Transmitted Diseases, exploring the 'connection between human genetic variation, sexually transmitted infections, and the functions of the vaginal microbiome', and is part of the White House's Human Microbiome Project.

Academic work
Ravel's work focuses on the relationship between the human microbiome and the 'relatively neglected' vaginal microbiome. In 2015, he was awarded the Blaise Pascal International Research Chair, to research at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. His studies have primarily focused on the vagina and have included 'determining the microbial changes that may result in a common and difficult-to-control infection called bacterial vaginosis, which afflicts more than 20 million American women of childbearing age', as well as sexual diseases and others. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his research lab at the University of Maryland monitored the spread of variants using 'vital genome sequencing'.

In an interview with in 2022, he noted “There’s a major lack of innovation [in women’s health],”, and announced his research would form the basis of LUCA Biologics, a US-based biotech spinoff of Seed Inc. that The New York Times notes as developing 'probiotics for B.V. and preterm birth'. Insider noted the start-up aimed to target UTIs with microbiome.

2001 anthrax investigation
In 2001, the United States experienced a series of bioterrorism attacks involving letters contaminated with anthrax spores. Ravel's group sequenced the genome of four anthrax variants isolated from the samples provided by the FBI at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). Ravel pinpointed the genetic mutations associated with these variants and developed assays to detect them. The FBI used this research to screen more than 1,000 anthrax samples, ultimately identifying eight samples with matching genetic signatures, all from Bruce Ivins' RMR-1029 flask. In addition, Ravel's team sequenced the genome of a Bacillus subtilis strain found in one of the letters, which did not match a strain from Ivins' lab but could have originated elsewhere within Ivins' institution.