Research

In collaboration with Dr. Priya Chakrabarti and Dr. Ramesh Sagili of the Honey Bee Laboratory at Oregon State University, I am testing whether nutritional complements such as probiotics can offset gut pathogen stressors such as Nosema ceranae, or if they can significantly impact the microbial composition of the honey bee gut. We are also testing whether the treatment can impact the gustatory response. This experiment employs a multi-omics approach in conjunction with an in-lab cage experiment.

I was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for my honey bee work, and proposed to also investigate the impact of host genetic background as well as environmental landscape on the honey bee microbiome.

In Dr. Maude David's lab at Oregon State University, I primarily study the impact of the gut microbiome and specific microbial taxa on behavioral outcomes in mice. Previously, Dr. David found specific taxa to be enriched in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (David et al, 2018). We feed this microbe to mice and use a wide spectra of behavioral testing to determine whether the microbe is capable of inducing an ASD or anxiety-like phenotype in the mice. I am also using sequencing and metabolomic approaches to attempt to unravel some of the mechanisms underlying the interactions between the gut microbiome and the brain.

I am also interested in determining the impact of sex on the behavioral outcomes, as noted differences have been observed between male and female mice in our studies.