Overview
The overarching goal of our lab is to understand the interplay between human gut microbiota and host aging.
The human gut microbiota, consisting of trillions of microorganisms, encodes diverse metabolic pathways that impact host gastrointestinal health and systemic immunity. Microbiota diversity decreases with age, suggesting age-associated changes in gut microbial composition and host biological processes. Fecal microbiota transplantation from healthy mice improves healthspan and lifespan of progeroid mouse models, indicating mechanistic roles of gut bacterial community in modulating host aging.
However, the mechanisms by which gut bacteria and their metabolites impact host aging and physiology represent a new frontier that remains to be fully explored.
We will leverage metabolomics, microbiology, and molecular genetics to define the regulation of host physiology by the gut microbiota, at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels. We aim to identify novel molecular mechanisms of gut microbe-host interactions and develop methods of intervention that would ameliorate age-associated health decline in the mammalian host.