Understanding the interplay between endogenous microbiota and our immune response is a key driver of my motivation and research. My postdoctoral work revolves around this and is more formalized into the following two questions: (1) how does maternal health and disease shape the microbial and immune ontogeny of related infants during early life, and (2) how does the interplay between viruses and bacteria modulate immunity in the female genital tract?
To address these questions, I use a synthesis of computational and experimental approaches to generate and interrogate multiomic datasets from human cohort studies. I am fortunate to be a member of Heather Jaspan’s research group, which is involved in several clinical trials and cohort studies across Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to these global analyses of various ‘omics datasets, I also use experimental approaches to validate results from statistical inference. Cumulatively, these approaches aim to provide both breadth and detail in answering the questions of how microbial dysbioses arise, persist, and modify the immune response of the host
At the risk of waxing poetic, I’ll leave it to this brief snippet, but I’ve usually got a few things in the pipes, so it’s worth checking back occasionally for updates.
happy trails!