Dr. Cecilia Noecker, Assistant Professor

Research in my lab uses microbiology, genomics, and bioinformatics to uncover the lifestyles and ecological roles of diverse microbes living in and on humans and other animals. We are especially interested in gut microbes that have been overlooked because they grow slowly, metabolize unconventional nutrients, and/or are rarely found in urban human populations. We work to 1) describe their prevalence and evolution across environments and 2) analyze and model their growth and physiology. Hopefully, our findings will inform the design of microbiome-targeted therapeutics and the interpretation of microbiome differences in health and disease.