Dr. Raul Cano is the Director for Microbiome Research at the ATCC Center for Translational Microbiology at ILSE. He is also Professor Emeritus at the Biological Sciences Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, He has taught at Cal Poly for over 30 years. Dr. Cano is the founder and former Director the Environmental Biotechnology Institute (EBI). Dr. Cano help raise $5.6 million to build new research facilities for the EBI and to establish new research programs. As founding Scientist and Vice President of Ambergene Corporation, he isolated and characterized more that 1,200 ancient microorganisms from amber, including 9 ancient yeasts, four of which are brewer’s yeasts. His management skills, in addition of his role as Director for Microbiome Research at ATCC-CTM, include Director of the EBI (1996-present), Founding Scientist and Vice-President of Ambergene Corporation (1993-1997), President and Founder of Environmental Diagnostics, (2001 to present). and Vice-President in CHOSeN Biologics (2003-2006).

Dr. Cano is best known for his groundbreaking work with ancient DNA and microorganisms. Dr. Cano specializes in molecular and cellular microbiology. His current research interests focus on the microbiome and resistome of ancient human populations, including pre-Colombian cultures and ancient European and African cultures. He has lectured to scientists around the world, and has been published dozens of times in scientific journals including Science, Nature, Microbial Ecology, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, and many more. He has done patented work on deriving ancient bacteria from amber inclusions, exploration of petroleum production using microbial community analysis,  and has a patent pending for methods of detecting pathogens in foods, and control reagents for microbiome research.

His Ph.D. in microbiology was granted by the University of Montana, and Dr. Cano also holds degrees in Genetics and Clinical Microbiology. Dr. Cano has won many awards including the prestigious Carski Award, written several textbooks and laboratory procedures manuals, has served as scientific consultant to several Biotechnology firms, and has been elected fellow to the American Academy of Microbiology.