Originally from the South of the United States, Dr. Liles has had 36 different homes due to
his father serving in the U.S. Air Force. His wife is Prof. Mary Sandage, who is a faculty in the
Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences at Auburn University. His son Max is
an Auburn University Sophomore in the Architecture program.
At Auburn University, Dr. Liles has made important contributions in the areas of
microbiome research and disease control in agriculture and aquaculture. Among his honors
and awards are NIH predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowships, 84 different grants received
as Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI with over $13 million in total awarded funds in over 30
years as a microbiology researcher, recognition as Auburn University’s Outstanding
Graduate Mentor (2009) and the College of Sciences and Mathematics Young Faculty
Scholar Award (2017). He has published 137 peer-reviewed publications. Liles is a member
of the American Society for Microbiology and a founding member of the Society for
Functional Metagenomics.
Dr. Liles holds six U.S. patents and eight foreign patents that have been licensed to
multiple companies, and he has cofounded three biotech companies:
- Varizymes produces enzymes used for a COVID-19 home detection kit that received emergency use
authorization, as well as other enzymes required for molecular diagnostics, PCR and next-
generation sequencing; - Terra Bioforge uses synthetic biology tools to produce natural
products (antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs) using a CRISPR/Cas9 system to clone and express
biosynthetic gene clusters that encode drugable molecules. Terra Bioforge has recently
received significant investment from HudsonAlpha’s AgTech Accelerator program; and - Teliome develops probiotics and orally-delivered vaccines to prevent disease in aquaculture-
farmed fish and shellfish.
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