Microbiology of nutrigenomics

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The gastrointestinal tract of all animals is populated with an abundant and complex community of bacteria, archaea, protozoa and fungi, collectively termed microbiota. Imbalances in microbiota, or dysbiosis, contribute to the most important health issues facing modern medicine including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, asthma, and inflammatory bowel disease, among others. Microbes metabolize the food we eat, resulting in the production of diverse molecules that act on host cells contributing to health and disease. I am investigating how select microbes affect the production of these bioactive molecules by systematically removing bacterial populations from the gut. We will measure how changes in microbial population affect the production bioactive molecules and change host physiology. In characterizing fundamentals of microbe-mammalian interaction we will expand the understanding of how changes in the microbiota impact the host and promote health.