About Zackular Laboratory

The human gastrointestinal tract is home to a rich collection of microorganisms that has been termed the gut microbiota. This community of bacteria, fungi, archaea, and viruses is essential for our health and provides us nutrients, aids in digestion, primes our immune system, and confers colonization resistance to invading pathogens.

In addition to keeping humans healthy, the gut microbiota has also been associated with numerous diseases including obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, and cancer. The field of microbiome research has made significant strides over the past decade, primarily powered by the rapid advancement of next generation sequencing technologies, but the understanding of mechanisms that drive microbiota-associated diseases remains limited.

Research in the Zackular Lab draws from numerous fields including microbiology, immunology, microbial ecology, host-pathogen interactions, and microbiota research. Our strategy is to leverage the strengths of high-throughput sequencing technologies with more mechanistic strategies involving bacterial genetics, mass spectrometry, and imaging. Trainees in the laboratory gain interdisciplinary training and are involved in translational studies at the interface of basic and clinical research.