Research

Developing a metabolic framework of the gut microbial ecosystem

Hundreds of diverse microbes stably colonize the human gastrointestinal tract and makeup the gut microbiome. While only certain types of microbes are adapted for life in the gut, the presence and abundance of particular microbes within the microbiome varies greatly across the population.  Read more

 

 

 

 

 

Relevant publications
Exceptionally versatile respiratory metabolisms drive metabolite production by diverse gut bacteria. Little AS, Younker IT, Schechter MS, Méheust R, Stemczynski J, Scorza K, Nol Bernardino P, Mullowney MW, Sharan D, Waligurski E, Smith R, Ramanswamy R, Leiter W, Moran D, McMillin M, Odenwald MA, Iavarone AT, Sidebottom AM, Sundararajan A, Pamer EG, Eren AM, Light SH. bioRxiv (2022).

 

 

Mechanisms and applications of microbial bioelectrochemistry

Some anaerobic microbes use a process called extracellular electron transfer to route their respiratory electron transport chains to the exterior of the cell. Once outside the cell electrons can be captured with an electrode, facilitating the conversion of the energy in organic matter into electricity.  Read more

 

 

 

Relevant publications
Post-translational flavinylation is associated with diverse extracytosolic redox functionalities throughout bacterial life. Méheust,* Huang* et al., eLife (2021).

A flavin-based extracellular electron transfer mechanism in diverse Gram-positive bacteria. Light et al., Nature (2018).