Homepage

Research Overview

We are interested in understanding host-microbiota interactions and their influence on host phenotypes. Specifically, we investigate how maternal gut microbiota or early life enteric microbial communities shape infant immunity, vaccine immunogenicity and growth.

Infants who are exposed to HIV but uninfected (iHEU), display heightened immune activation, inflammation and higher infectious morbidity compared to those who are HIV unexposed uninfected (iHUU). iHEU also exhibit compromised growth and elevated risk for neurodevelopmental delay compared to iHUU. The mechanisms that underpin these phenomena are not well understood, but are likely multifactorial. We hypothesize that the gut bacteriome and virome are key drivers of poor clinical outcomes in iHEU. We are evaluating whether there is a causal relationship between early life gut microbiota of iHEU and these adverse outcomes. Our research spans clinical studies using samples obtained from human cohorts and reverse translational studies in preclinical models to uncover mechanistic insights. We study the gut microbiome, immune development, vaccine immunogenicity and growth. Our goal is to unravel the mechanisms underlying poorer health outcomes in iHEU, which will guide development of microbiota-targeted interventions to improve these infants’ health outcomes.