Research

Most people have experienced “gut issues” that led to diarrhea, discomfort, and other unpleasant symptoms at some point in their lives. In many cases, our gut microbiome—a complex ecosystem of trillions of bacteria—has been implicated as a cause of gut maladies. Our research is motivated by ``microbiome-based medicine,’’ personalized bacterial therapies that might one day heal suffering individuals. An emblematic and contemporary example of these therapies is fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), which cures C. difficile infection by transplanting poo from a healthy donor into a sick person’s gut.

The Jones Microbiome Lab’s research is grounded in a practical concern: How can fecal transplants be made more effective?

Towards this end, we specialize in the stochastic factors that influence microbiome assembly and ensure that everyone’s gut microbiome is unique. Our work is empirically grounded in fruit fly microbiome datasets procured by experimental collaborators. We love to collaborate: please reach out!

Some recent posters summarize our theoretical and and experimental research.