Microbiology of nutrigenomics

所有动物的胃肠道都有丰富而复杂的细菌、古细菌、原生动物和真菌群落，统称为微生物区系。微生物区系的不平衡，或称生物失调，是现代医学面临的最重要的健康问题，包括糖尿病、心脏病、癌症、哮喘和炎症性肠道疾病等。微生物对我们所吃的食物进行新陈代谢，导致产生各种分子，这些分子作用于宿主细胞，有助于健康和疾病。我正在研究选择的微生物如何通过系统地从肠道中去除细菌群来影响这些生物活性分子的产生。我们将测量微生物种群的变化如何影响产生生物活性分子和改变宿主生理。在描述微生物-哺乳动物相互作用的基本原理时，我们将扩大对微生物区系变化如何影响宿主和促进健康的理解。

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.