Awarded in 2025
Home Department: Bioengineering
Faculty Advisors: Michael Snyder (Genetics), Markus Covert (Bioengineering), and Justin Sonnenburg (Microbiology & Immunology)

Research Title: A Microbiome Engineering Framework for Metabolomic Modulation

Your gut is home to trillions of microbes, collectively known as the microbiome, which significantly influence your health. These microbes produce various substances, called metabolites, which directly regulate your metabolism, immune system, and overall well-being. Yet, identifying precisely how altering your microbiome affects these beneficial metabolites remains a challenge. Khoa aims to develop an innovative framework to predict how specific changes in your gut microbiome can modulate the production of key metabolites. By integrating longitudinal metagenomics and metabolomics data analysis, metabolic modeling of gut bacteria community, and controlled germ-free mouse experiments, the framework will enable targeted interventions to optimize microbial metabolites outputs. Ultimately, this could transform treatments for metabolic and immune-related disorders, leading to improved, personalized health outcomes.