Zackular Laboratory

The long-term goal of the Zackular Lab is to understand how interactions between the host, gut microbiota, and pathogenic microbes impact human health and disease. At the center of their research is the important nosocomial pathogen, Clostridium difficile.

Over the past decade, incidence, severity, and costs associated with C. difficile infection (CDI) have increased dramatically. The primary risk factor for CDI is antibiotic treatment, which disrupts the resident gut microbiota and leads to susceptibility to C. difficile. Interestingly, non-antibiotic associated CDI cases are on the rise, suggesting that unexplored host, environmental, and microbiota factors likely influence CDI.

This research team is interested in identifying these environmental factors and defining underlying mechanisms of microbiota disruption and modulation of disease.

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