Rate My Professor Emma Allen-Vercoe

Emma Allen-Vercoe is a Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Guelph, where she holds a Canada Research Chair. She earned a B.Sc. (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of London in 1993 and a Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology from the Open University in conjunction with the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research in the United Kingdom. Following postdoctoral work at the University of Calgary, she joined the University of Guelph in December 2007. In 2026, she was appointed Acting Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies in the College of Biological Science.

Allen-Vercoe’s research centers on the human gut microbiota in health and disease. Her laboratory has developed the Robogut continuous culture system to model distal gut microbial communities and has contributed bacterial isolates to the Human Microbiome Project. Key research areas include the roles of specific bacteria such as Fusobacterium nucleatum in colorectal cancer, microbial influences on type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and responses of the microbiota to environmental factors. She co-founded NuBiyota to advance microbial ecosystem therapeutics for conditions linked to gut dysbiosis. Allen-Vercoe has participated in major international collaborations, including a team awarded $25 million through the Cancer Grand Challenges program in 2019, and maintains active projects on honey bee gut microbiomes.