People

Faculty

Mélanie Gareau, Ph.D.

  • Associate Professor and Associate Professor in Residence
  • VET MED: Anatomy, Physiology & Cell Biology
Research Interests: Microbiota-gut-brain axis. Characterizing the microbiota-gut-brain axis in models of inflammatory bowel disease and following infection with an enteric bacterial pathogen. Determining the mechanisms involved in the development of the microbiota-gut-brain axis in early life.

Angela Gomez-Simmonds, M.D., M.S.

  • Assistant Clinical Professor
  • Division of Infectious Diseases
  • MED: Internal Medicine
Research Interests: Understanding the epidemiology of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria causing hospital-associated infections.

Dennis Hartigan-O'Connor, M.D., Ph.D.

  • Associate Professor
  • MED: Microbiology & Immunology
Research Interests: Immune control over chronic infections including HIV and HCV. Also interested in development of the immune system and how different developmental influences may control later responses to agents of chronic infection

Matthias Hess, Ph.D.

  • Associate Professor
  • Animal Science
Research Interests: Systems microbiology, microbial processes in natural and artificial ecosystems, microbes and microbial enzymes for agricultural, medical, and industrial applications, microbe-host interaction, gastrointestinal microbiology, biofuels, bioproducts, bioremediation, microbial dark matter

Mary Kable, Ph.D.

  • Research Molecular Biologist
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor
  • USDA ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center
  • Department of Nutrition
Research Interests: Dr. Kable is interested in the interaction between microbial communities, food and human health. Using in vitro digestion/fermentation models and sequence based characterization of microbial community structures during human dietary interventions, the Kable Lab investigates how foods rich in complex carbohydrates and polyphenols can influence the structure of the gut microbial community and its metabolic products. Dr. Kable collaborates closely with the Lemay and Stephensen labs to characterize how gut microbial characteristics influence human health.

Danielle G. Lemay, Ph.D.

  • Research Scientist
  • USDA ARS Western Nutrition Research Center
Research Interests: Diet, gut microbiome, GI health in Humans. Application of bioinformatics, ML, AI to understand the relationship of diet and/or gut microbiome with human health.