We are pleased to share our latest manuscript on Rapid evolution and strain turnover in the infant gut microbiome. In this paper, we quantify differences in the tempo and mode of evolution in the infant compared to adult gut microbiomes and find that evolution and strain turnover is significantly faster in infants and decays with life stage. Please check out our manuscript and send us any comments!

Figure 2 from Chen and Garud. (B) Rates of number of SNV changes per day due to evolution, (C) rates of number of strain replacements per day, and (D) rates of gene gains and loss per day.

We are very sad to bid Daisy Chen farewell, but excited for her next steps as a PhD student at UCSD. Daisy has been with the lab since its inception in 2019 and has contributed a tremendous amount to its growth. Stay tuned for her papers, which are forthcoming!

Nandita was recently named a Hellman Fellow at UCLA! This grant will fund work in the lab on Uncovering the Landscape of Mutations in the Human Gut Microbiome.

We sincerely thank the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, and the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation for funding our research group to collaborate with Dr. Will Ludington’s group on our project: Do Aging Microbiomes Evolve Pathogenicity Via Gene Shedding? Using Evolutionary Theory to Deconstruct Microbiome-based Neurodegeneration. This grant was facilitated via that Scialog! meeting hosted earlier this year.

Nandita is a Microbiome, Neurobiology and Disease Scialog Fellow and recently participated in the annual Scialog conference to innovate and pitch new ideas about the connection between the gut and the brian.