--- description: Find out how Susan Bullman is shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership. title: Susan Bullman Is on the 2025 TIME100 Next image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8345ddb1ac2aeecf/6998ca0266d4e3126acbcdd4/t100-next-2025-Susan_BULLMAN.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 30, 2025 # Susan Bullman by Matthew Meyerson  Courtesy Susan Bullman Susan Bullman, a scientist at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, studies how the digestive tract’s microbiome can affect the development of oral and colorectal cancers. Advances in DNA sequencing now allow scientists to see a fuller picture of the microbes found in the body and to identify variations that affect health. Susan, who was a research fellow in my laboratory at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, has elucidated the connection between the micro­biome and the immune response. Her groundbreaking research offers new potential avenues for screening and treatments for cancers that are on the rise. The work that scientists like Susan are doing on the cancer microbiome could also help untangle a new mystery in colo­rectal cancer: Why are so many more young people now getting this terrible disease? _Meyerson is a professor at Harvard Medical School and researcher at Dana-Farber_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318805/susan-bullman/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318805/susan-bullman/"},"headline":"Susan Bullman","datePublished":"2025-09-30T10:45:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:54:41.809Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318805/susan-bullman/","keywords":["TIME100 Next","sponsorshipblock","t100nextinnovators25"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8345ddb1ac2aeecf/6998ca0266d4e3126acbcdd4/t100-next-2025-Susan_BULLMAN.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8345ddb1ac2aeecf/6998ca0266d4e3126acbcdd4/t100-next-2025-Susan_BULLMAN.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time100-next/","name":"TIME100 Next"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318805/susan-bullman/","name":"Susan Bullman"}}]}] ```