Maria Andrea Azcarate Peril
Professor of Microbiology University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Andrea Azcarate-Peril, PhD, is Professor of Microbiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Director of the UNC Microbiome Core. An expert in microbiome science, functional genomics, and molecular microbiology, she leads collaborative research supporting investigators across a broad range of biomedical disciplines. Her work combines advanced sequencing technologies, microbial genomics, and molecular biology to better understand host-microbe interactions and bacterial physiology. Through her research and leadership, Dr. Azcarate-Peril is advancing microbiome discovery while mentoring the next generation of scientists.
Seminars
Wednesday 11th November 2026
Transitioning from Observational to Causal Evidence to Strengthen Preventive Medicine Credibility for Probiotics & Prebiotics
10:15 am
- Challenging the bias toward curative medicine by demonstrating how probiotics and prebiotics deliver measurable preventive health benefits including cognitive decline prevention and gut microbiota restoration
- Addressing regulatory gaps created by insufficient evidence standards that allow unsubstantiated probiotic claims to undermine scientifically credible preventive microbiome interventions
- Improving scientific communication of existing probiotic and prebiotic research to build clinical and regulatory credibility for preventive medicine applications in mainstream healthcare
