Jacques Ravel, PhD, studies the foundational mechanisms of the relationship between the cervicovaginal microbiome and epithelia, particularly in the context of sexually transmitted infections, bacterial vaginosis, and adverse pregnancy outcomes.   

Over the past 18 years, he has developed a research program focused on applying modern genomics technologies and ecological principles to characterize the role and dynamics of the vaginal microbiome in women’s health. The Ravel Lab uses microbiome clinical studies and systems biology applied to high-dimensional omics data to explore questions that were previously unanswerable in vivo. This research is focused on developing improved treatments to manage gynecological and obstetrics conditions. A cure for bacterial vaginosis, for example, would have a wide-ranging impact on women’s health globally, including preventing HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, improving pregnancy outcomes, and addressing certain aspects of infertility. His work is actively being translated by developing novel live microbiome-based biotherapeutic formulations seeking to restore vaginal health and treat conditions such as bacterial vaginosis and urinary tract infections.  

Dr. Ravel has published over 300 peer-reviewed publications. He is co-director (PI) of the NIH-funded Collaborative Research Center on Human 3D Biomimetics Cervicovaginal Models for Sexually Transmitted Infections. His work led him to be elected to Fellowship of the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM) in 2012, and in 2015, he was awarded the Blaise Pascal International Research Chair and spent two years at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. In 2019, he co-founded LUCA Biologics, a biotechnology company developing live therapeutics targeting the vaginal microbiome. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of the journal Microbiome, which has achieved an impact factor of 19.9 in the 10 years since its creation, and as a fellow of the AAM, he is an Associate Editor of the journal mBio.   

Dr. Ravel completed his PhD at the University of Maryland College Park in Environmental Molecular Microbiology and Ecology and performed his postdoctoral training as a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research fellow at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. He joined the Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2007, where is he now Director of CAMRI as well as Associate Director of IGS. Previously, from 2002 to 2007, he was an Assistant Investigator at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), the pioneering institute where the first microbial genome was sequenced.