The 3M Lab 

"Microbiome, Metabolome & Metabolism"

About 3M Lab

In the past, the role of the intestine in human health and disease remained underappreciated and mostly attributed to its role in digestion and absorption. However, in the last two decades, research on human nutrition and the reciprocal interactions between intestinal hosts and microbes has shown the critical part that gut health plays in the development of chronic illnesses and general welfare. Our knowledge of the pathophysiology of chronic diseases has been fundamentally altered by the discovery that the transmission of gut microbiota may be a method of disease phenotype transfer and also a mode of therapy. Therefore, the research themes of our group emphasize the key ideas related to intestinal microbiota, metabolism, and metabolome (3M) that have helped us comprehend the relationship between the gut and human health and illness at its most fundamental level. In keeping with the growing interest in dietary phytochemicals' ability to influence human health in a way that is dependent on the microbiota, we also investigate new ideas that go beyond the bioactivities of phytochemicals and emphasize the essential function of microbial metabolites of parent phytochemicals in extraintestinal tissues. Our research broadly revolves around the phrase, it takes ‘guts’ to stay healthy!

The great hopes of the pre-genomic period to define human behavior, disease susceptibility, and decode the aging process through the study of human genomics or establishing the functional features of the huge non-coding area of the genome have not been very fruitful. Instead, mounting evidence points to environmental variables (such as nutrition and lifestyle) as having a significant impact on the host's phenotypic plasticity. Recent advances in the health sciences have shown that the metagenome of human gut bacteria is susceptible to environmental influences, which in turn can have an impact on human health and disease. In fact, the human body is becoming more and more recognized as a 'holobiont', with mutually interacting host and microbial elements. A secure and nutrient-rich environment is provided by the intestinal lumen for microbial colonization, which plays a significant role in determining human health and illness and is often symbiotic in nature. A plethora of studies in the past two decades has demonstrated the integral role of gut microbiota in human evolution, immune homeostasis and autoimmunity, neuromodulation, organ development and functions, aging and longevity, long-term risk of death, disease risk, infectious or con-communicable disease, social behavior, mood, emotion, temperament, personality traits, and sexual desire.

The research themes of our lab can be broadly classified into: