Jeffrey Gordon, MD, the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has pioneered the exploration of the mysterious, microscopic world of the gut microbiome. A luminary in the field, Gordon, who also serves as the director of the Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences & Systems Biology, studies the tens of trillions of microbes that live in and on our bodies and partner with our organs to shape human health.
Today, he is collaborating with colleagues at WashU and around the world to put those microbes to work to create better treatments for childhood malnutrition — the leading cause of death worldwide for children ages five and under. The condition affects more than 200 million infants and toddlers, primarily in under-resourced areas of the world like South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
“This is a defining century for humanity,” Gordon says, referring to the dual challenge of feeding the globe’s growing population while adapting to its rapidly changing climate. “Our gut, with its trillions of microbial inhabitants, offers so many timely lessons to improve nutritional status and treat disease. This work takes time, meticulous attention, and resources from visionary partners who share our goals.”
Enter Emeritus Trustee George Couch and his wife, Debra Couch, who are longtime WashU Medicine benefactors. Last December, the couple pledged $2 million to establish the Couch Microbiome Research Fund to support Gordon’s fight against global malnutrition. Compelled by his research, the Couches pledged an additional $1 million to the fund earlier this year.
“It’s horrible for anyone to go day in and out without having enough to eat, especially children,” Debra Couch says. “People shouldn’t go hungry anywhere.”
The couple’s gifts support the university’s efforts to foster more flourishing communities around the world through With You: The WashU Campaign, a fundraising and engagement initiative launched May 1.
Flourishing communities
You can help power efforts to protect the well-being of populations and our planet through With You.
The power of microbes
Gordon and fellow researchers at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh have identified a causal link between gut microbiome development and healthy growth in the first years of life. He and his lab are using this knowledge to design healing foods at a molecular level. With support from the Gates Foundation, they have been developing therapeutic foods that target the microbiome and are testing them in diverse groups of children around the world.
The Couches’ fund will provide resources for Gordon and his team to sustainably scale their efforts. And it will enable them to better understand connections between the molecular makeup of food, its metabolism by the microbiome, and the functions of our organ systems and overall health. The spendable funding will also help the researchers tackle challenges like making therapeutic food formulations from sustainable sources that are shelf-stable and suitable for global distribution. Gordon envisions creating a “prebiotic sprinkle” that boosts the activities of health-promoting microbes and can be added to everyday meals and evaluated in clinical trials.
“Everybody likes a winning team. It’s hard not to feel proud of being associated with WashU, the medical school, and Dr. Gordon.”
George Couch
The Couches’ gift will also advance research into how malnutrition passes from mothers to babies and will help uncover interventions that can repair both of their microbiomes. Ultimately, Gordon and his collaborators seek to develop ways to ensure healthy microbiome development during infancy and childhood — in part by producing a sequence of foods and snacks to feed children during and after the weaning period. Their work offers an opportunity to integrate agricultural practices, food science, and microbiome science to provide innovative and timely solutions to global malnutrition.
A winning team
The Couches, who are based in Dallas, possess a deep trust in WashU’s research enterprise and exceptional scientists like Gordon. “Everybody likes a winning team,” George Couch says. “It’s hard not to feel proud of being associated with WashU, the medical school, and Dr. Gordon.”
His relationship with the university goes back to 1986, when he and his family made a $1 million gift to endow the Gregory B. Couch Professorship in Psychiatry Deanna Barch currently holds the position, which honors George’s late brother who received treatment for schizophrenia at WashU Medicine. Barch, who is also a professor of psychological and brain sciences, was recognized last fall by the National Academy of Medicine and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation for her work on schizophrenia and other mental health conditions. The Couch family has continued to make gifts for research in the Department of Psychiatry since establishing the professorship.
Over the years, George and Debra Couch have made gifts for WashU’s Danforth Scholars Program and the Chancellor’s Fund for Excellence. WashU Medicine, however, remains their core passion. In 2017, the couple made a $10 million investment in personalized medicine at the university’s Genome Engineering and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Center (GEiC). In recognition of their gift, the building housing the GEiC and other research programs was named the Debra and George W. Couch III Biomedical Research Building. Today, it is home to Gordon’s lab.
The Couches also have a long history of leadership at WashU. George began serving on the School of Medicine National Council in 1998 and joined WashU’s Board of Trustees in 2006. He chaired a committee for the medical school during the university’s previous fundraising campaign, Leading Together: The Campaign for Washington University. The couple, who together received one of WashU’s highest honors — the Robert S. Brookings Award — in 2018, are now members of the With You campaign cabinet.
Front-row seat to impact
The Couches appreciate being at the forefront of WashU’s world-changing innovations through their philanthropy. “We both consider it a tremendous privilege to work with Dr. Gordon,” George says. “To be, in some small way, attached to Dr. Gordon’s team, which is dedicated to delivering this kind of good, is more than I ever thought I’d be able to enjoy in my life.”
Debra echoes her husband’s gratitude for being part of a potentially transformative project. “This university makes the world a better place to live,” she says. “Your heart goes out when you think about what a difference Dr. Gordon’s research can make in so many lives.”
The pair intends to keep growing their fund as much as possible. “We will continue to support Dr. Gordon as long as we can,” George says. “This university has never let us down.”
