Press Releases

Seattle - Jul 16, 2024

Benaroya Research Institute Appoints New Principal Investigator Allyson Byrd, PhD

Augments institute’s bioinformatics and microbiome research

Benaroya Research Institute (BRI), a world leader in human immunology research, welcomed the addition of Allyson Byrd, PhD, as principal investigator and assistant member in the Center for Systems Immunology. An accomplished scientist, Dr. Byrd brings a wealth of experience and expertise in microbiome research, bioinformatics, and cancer immunology.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Byrd to BRI," said Jane Buckner, MD, president of BRI. "Her collaborative approach, extensive experience in bioinformatics, and expertise in the microbiome and clinical datasets will bring invaluable insights and transform how we approach complex multi-dimensional data.”

In her new role, Dr. Byrd will be responsible for growing microbiome and metabolomic clinical research at BRI, including building out computational workflows and expanding microbiome sample collections in healthy donors, patients with cancer and autoimmune disease.

BRI’s Center for Systems Immunology uses state-of-the-art tools to collect, process and examine data from studies across BRI and worldwide. The addition of Dr. Byrd underscores BRI's commitment to advancing the field of immunology through cutting-edge research and collaboration.

"I am honored to be part of BRI's groundbreaking work in immunology. I look forward to working with the team to discover actionable insights into how microbial factors associate with and influence disease development, therapeutic response, and immune system activation in patients with cancer and immune-mediated diseases."

Allyson Byrd, PhD

Prior to BRI, Dr. Byrd worked at Genentech, where she led microbiome research in cancer immunology. As a principal scientist, she founded the Byrd Lab, which analyzed multi-omic clinical datasets to uncover how microbial factors influence cancer therapy responses. She also managed the Microbiome Computational Workflows, developing and maintaining Genentech-wide analysis pipelines. While at Genentech, Dr. Byrd played a key role in establishing global collaborations, expanding microbiome collection in cancer immunology clinical trials, and advancing the understanding of the microbiome's role in oncology.

Dr. Byrd holds a doctorate in bioinformatics from Boston University and the National Institutes of Health, where her research focused on detecting bacterial strains across human skin sites in health and disease.

About Benaroya Research Institute

Benaroya Research Institute (BRI) is a world leader in human immune system research. BRI works to advance the science that will predict, prevent, reverse and cure immune system diseases like allergies, asthma, cancer and autoimmune diseases. BRI accelerates discovery through laboratory breakthroughs in immunology that are then translated to clinical therapies. We believe that a breakthrough in one immune system disease can lead to progress against them all, and work tirelessly toward our vision of a healthy immune system for everyone. BRI is a world-renowned independent nonprofit research institute affiliated with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health and based in Seattle.

To learn more, visit benaroyaresearch.org and connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn, X and YouTube.