Research Summary
Dr. Kleiner has extensive research experience in the fields of metabolic and physiological interactions in host-microbe systems, microbial ecology, protein biochemistry, and the application of metagenomics and high-resolution mass spectrometry-based approaches to study microbiota and their hosts. To investigate phenotypes at the molecular level and unravel functional interactions his lab develops and deploys novel approaches based on high-resolution mass spectrometry to identify and quantify proteins in these highly complex samples. The approaches make it possible to (1) understand how gene expression in the host and the microbiota changes in response to dietary or community changes, (2) analyze community structure changes based on the biomass contributions of individual microbial and viral members, and (3) measure isotope ratios in proteins to follow the flow of carbon and nitrogen from the host and diet to the microbiota and vice versa. In addition to this, Dr. Kleiner has developed approaches for quantitative metagenomics to study viral communities in the intestinal tract during inflammation, and a “transductomics” approach, which allows detection of ongoing horizontal gene transfer via viral transduction in the intestinal tract.
CGIBD Focus Area(s): Microbiome
Collaborators: Theriot, Sartor, Sheikh, Ziegler, Gonzalez
