Justin L. Sonnenburg
Key Documents
Professional Overview
Honors and Awards
- Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigators in Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease Award, Burroughs Wellcome Fund (2011)
- NIH Directors New Innovator Award, NIH (2009)
Professional Education
| BS: | UC Davis, Biochemistry (1996) |
| PhD: | UC San Diego, Biomedical Sciences (2003) |
Postdoctoral Advisees
Internet Links
Scientific Focus
Current Research Interests
We are interested in the basic principles that govern interactions within the intestinal microbiota and between the microbiota and the host. To pursue these aims, we colonize germ-free (gnotobiotic) mice with simplified, model microbial communities, apply systems approaches (e.g. functional genomics), and use genetic tools for the host and microbes to gain mechanistic insight into emergent properties of the host-microbial super-organism.
Publications
- Bacteroides in the infant gut consume milk oligosaccharides via mucus-utilization pathways. Cell Host Microbe. 2011; (5): 507-14
- Community health care: therapeutic opportunities in the human microbiome. Sci Transl Med. 2011; (78): 78ps12
- Microbiology: Genetic pot luck. Nature. 2010; (7290): 837-8
- Specificity of polysaccharide use in intestinal bacteroides species determines diet-induced microbiota alterations. Cell. 2010; (7): 1241-52
- A hybrid two-component system protein of a prominent human gut symbiont couples glycan sensing in vivo to carbohydrate metabolism. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006; (23): 8834-9
