An official website of the United States government.
<p>The goals of this project are to:</p><p><ol><li> Characterize food and beverage-related microbes and microbial biogeography using molecular methods.</li><li> Characterize the molecular biology and physiology of probiotic lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria.</li><li> Characterize bioactive ingredients in milk and novel prebiotics for their impact on gut health.</li></ol></p>
<p>We will employ various techniques to perform our research including:</p><p><ol><li> Next generation marker gene sequencing to map microbial ecologies of food production systems or gut microbiomes. </li><li> Mass spectrometry based glycomics to analyze breakdown of prebiotic molecules to define how probiotics.</li><li> Mass spectrometry and NMR based metabolomics to examine metabolites produced by food- or gut-related microbes. </li><li> Next generation sequencing to enable metagenomic, metatranscriptomic, transcriptomic and genomic characterization of microbial consortia or individual microbes or eukaryotic cell responses to these microbes.</li><li> Novel molecular genetic techniques to examine gene function in lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria. </li><li> Employ mouse and pig animal models of gut health or dysbiosis.</li></ol></p>