Microbiome and Nutrition on Health and Disease

The overarching objective is to determine how differences in the organismal and functional composition of the human gut microbiome affect metabolic health associated with consumption of a diet with varying level of soy isoflavones.To identify the microbial ecosystems with disparate equol-producing capacity in germ- free mice received human gut microbiome of post-menopausal women.To determine the level of essentiality of gut microbial equol-producing capacity on obtaining metabolic benefits from soy consumption.To determine whether the intergenerational retention and loss of equol-producing bacteria is soy isoflavone-dependent.