Our lab studies the ecology and evolution of the human microbiome, with a central focus on how host-associated microbial communities assemble in early life, transmit between individuals, and adapt to new hosts and environments. Critically, we also want to improve our understanding of these processes in order to design effective microbiome-based therapies and management approaches to improve human health and wellbeing.
The human microbiome has profound impacts on disorders spanning the immune, metabolic, and neuroendocrine systems. Although these microbes continually transmit between individuals throughout life, we are particularly interested in the dynamics of mother-to-infant microbial transmission. By examining how microbial ecosystems take shape in infancy, we aim to understand how early variation in microbiome composition and function influences long-term health outcomes.
Why focus on babies? This early period represents a critical window for immune training, metabolic programming, and developmental processes that set the stage for lifelong health. Our research integrates microbial ecology, host-microbe interactions, and genome evolution to identify the processes that shape our microbiome from birth. Our goal is to identify the ecological and evolutionary forces that underlie early colonization, succession, and stabilization of the microbiome — and how these processes may vary across individuals, populations and cultures, and even host species.
To tackle these and related questions, we use high-throughput genomic and metagenomic approaches across a diverse range of experimental and natural systems, including conventionally-raised, germ-free, and rewilded mouse models; nonhuman primate models; and clinical and cohort-based studies in humans. By fusing experimental and computational approaches with ecological and evolutionary theory, we aim to generate new insights into how the microbiome develops, adapts, and influences health from the very beginning of life.