Our lab studies the interactions between our resident bacterial communities, the microbiota, and our cells.
We focus on metabolic interactions, mainly bacterial metabolites that regulate host cellular functions.
We discovered that indole production by gut bacteria is modulated by a dietary-induced posttranslational modification on the enzyme producing indole, and since the renal toxin indoxyl-sulfate is derived from indole, it affects kidney function in mice.

Another focus of the lab is understanding the role of the microbiota in tumor biology and immunology.