Where the nervous system meets the microbial world
Our lab studies how the body's smallest residents — the microbes living in the gut, and ancient molecular machinery shared with bacteria — shape the cells of the brain. We work at the crossing point of neurobiology and microbiology, from the fish gut–brain axis to conserved protein domains implicated in brain cancer.
We study the conversation between gut microbes and glial cells — and the ancient molecular parts they still share.
Find out more
Two lines of inquiry
The gut–brain axis under stress, and a conserved bacterial domain implicated in astrocytoma.
Read more → TeamWho we are
An interdisciplinary group working across microbiology, neuroscience, and physiology.
Meet the team → TeachingIn the classroom
Socratic method and innovative pedagogy and an international COIL program.
See teaching → NewsLab updates
Grants, publications, talks, and milestones from the lab.
Read updates →In our lab
We welcome inquiries from prospective trainees interested in microbiome science, neuroscience, and comparative physiology.
Creativity is combining facts no one else has connected before.
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1995