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UFR
Research
Decoding and Rewriting Bacterial Communication
Bacteria coordinate collective behaviors through chemical signaling. While key insights have been obtained from a few model systems, their limited taxonomic distribution suggests that the vast majority of bacterial chemical communication systems remain uncharacterized.
Our lab seeks to discover and characterize novel communication systems, primarily within the Bacteroidota phylum, across both environmental and human-associated microbiomes. Beyond elucidating how these systems function, we aim to leverage their components and design principles to develop strategies for engineering microbial communities
Bacteroidota secretome “dark matter”
Microbial communities are shaped not only by cooperation, but also by intense competition. We study secreted peptides and proteins that mediate competitive interactions between neighboring bacteria. To illuminate this secretome “dark matter” in non-model bacteria such as the Bacteroidota, we combine multi-omics-guided gene discovery with experimental characterization through biochemistry, synthetic biology, and bioactivity profiling.
Our goal is to understand how secreted effectors shape microbiome structure and determine how these molecules, along with their biosynthetic and secretion machinery, can be leveraged for biotechnology and medicine.
Molecular-evolutionary mechanisms allowing niche transition
We use Bacteroidota as a model to mechanistically understand bacterial niche transitions. Our work integrates evolutionary genomics, microbiology, and synthetic biology to identify and characterize the genetic innovations, regulatory changes, and metabolic adaptations that enable bacteria to transition between distinct ecosystems.
