Awarded in 2026
Home Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Faculty Advisors: Kerwyn Casey Huang (Bioengineering and Microbiology & Immunology) and Justin Sonnenburg (Microbiology & Immunology)

Research Title: Colibactin Reshapes the Evolutionary Landscape of the Gut

Research on the genotoxic, microbially-produced metabolite colibactin has focused primarily on its role in initiating DNA damage and carcinogenesis in eukaryotic cells. While important, this focus has left both its ecological role within microbial communities, and the orthogonal pathologies that may arise from it, poorly understood. Through a suite of genetic and ecological approaches, Morgan hopes to elucidate how colibactin alters microbial communities and its broader, long-term implications for the genomic landscape of the gut microbiome.