People

I am interested in the dynamic host-microbiota relationship. We cannot live without our microbes and our immune system works to distinguish symbiotic friend from pathogenic foe. How this happens, we are yet to understand. We have barely scratched the surface of understanding the complex bidirectional dependence between a host and their microbes. My research is focused on understanding how perturbing the microbiota at different times can influence the mucosal immune system, and how this can lead to an altered susceptibility to colitis. I am interested in how the perturbation alters the bacterial community composition, the resilience of the community and how the immune system responds to the changing microbiota.