My lab is interested in studying interactions between infectious diseases and the gut microbiota, the indigenous microbes that live in our gastrointestinal tract. We use a combination of bioinformatics, animal models of disease, and microbiology to understand how beneficial microbes function during health and disease states.

One focus of the lab is Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile infection (CDI), a serious nosocomial infection that affects half a million individuals per year in the United States. The majority of CDI cases occur after antibiotic use, and we know that a healthy gut microbiome is important in resistance to C. difficile. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has become a common and effective treatment method for combatting recurrence of infection, which impacts 20-30% of individuals with CDI. While it is known that a diverse community of microbes is necessary for clearance of C. difficile, the functional contribution of these communities remains unknown. We study how microbial communities interact with the host to clear C. difficile in a mouse model of recurrent disease. We aim to understand: 1) which microbes are involved, 2) what metabolites are important, and 3) how the host responds during C. difficile clearance and disease recovery.