Decoding microbial biochemistry
Human gut microbial metabolism
Metabolites produced by gut microbes are strongly correlated with human disease. However, we do not know the origins of many of these bioactive molecules. This limitation hinders our ability to decipher causal relationships between microbial metabolism and disease. Our goals are to define biochemical pathways in gut bacteria, to dissect metabolic networks in bacterial communities, and to connect metabolism to host disease.
Although we perceive our world as oxygen-rich, many microenvironments are oxygen-limited or anoxic. Microbial habitats, such as the human gut, biofilms, and wounds, can have steep oxygen gradients. Therefore, unique chemical strategies are required to respond to changes in oxygen saturation. Our goals are to elucidate enzymatic strategies based on radical- or metal-dependent chemistry that enable microbial adaptation to microaerobic or anaerobic conditions.
Microbial metalloenzymes in anoxic environments
The last few decades have seen an explosion in microbial genome and metagenome sequencing. However, our understanding of the functions encoded in this vast genetic information is not growing apace. Our goal is to develop high-throughput platforms to functionally profile large protein superfamilies. These approaches will tackle challenges of discovering and characterizing metabolic functions in both cultivated and uncultivated microbes.
