iHEAD
Research Initiative

The functional output of the microbiota is dynamically influenced by environmental cues, including nutrients and xenobiotics. Such tripartite interactions between host, microbes, and exogenous compounds are broadly conserved across species—from plants to invertebrates and humans. Xenobiotics can remodel microbial community composition and activity, thereby affecting host physiology either directly or indirectly. Similarly, host-derived metabolites and proteins influence microbial dynamics by serving as selective nutrients or by inhibiting essential microbial functions.

 

Using integrated omics analysis combined with high-throughput Caenorhabditis elegans infection models, we aim at uncovering infochemicals responsible for host to microbe and microbe to host communication and understand how environmental cues shift the fine symbiotic balance in the context of health and disease.