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Contact Information

322 Isaac Taylor Hall
Campus Box 7555
Chapel Hill NC 27599-7555
(O) 919 966-9838

Website Links

PubMed 

Microbiome Core Facility

Associate Professor
UNC Departments of Medicine and Nutrition
NC State Department of Plant and Microbial Biology
Director, Microbiome Core Facility
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Research Summary

Andrea Azcarate is a microbiologist who studies the mechanisms by which prebiotics and probiotics modulate the gut microbiota providing a health benefit to the host. She has authored numerous publications in the field of functional genomics of probiotic bacteria, and beneficial modulation of the microbiome. Moreover, her expertise lays on the compositional and functional analyses of the microbiome and identification of health-relevant microbial signatures. She and her colleagues have recently shown that prebiotics can alleviate symptoms of lactose intolerance by favoring growth of lactose-scavenger beneficial bacteria. Determination of compounds and methods that can beneficially modulate the gut microbiome to reverse dysbiosis will have a relevant role in preventing gastrointestinal disorders like obesity, and aging-associated dysbioses

Relevance of Research to CGIBD Mission:  Andrea Azcarate-Peril studies the mechanisms by which pre- and pro-biotics modulate the gut microbiota, a topic that is of great importance to the CGIBD.  Dr. Azcarate-Peril directs the Microbiome Core Facility. Dr. Azcarate-Peril will curate a microbial culture collection in the Gnotobiotic Core starting December 2019.

CGIBD Focus Area(s):  Microbiome

Collaborators:  Allbritton, Carroll, Keku, Gulati, Fodor, Keku, Magness, Rawls, Yeh