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Microbiome studies are easy to generate and hard to interpret. The gap between association and mechanism is where most of the field is stuck. This month’s First Friday Microbiome Seminar leans directly into that gap, with work that ties microbial features to host biology and disease risk in a way that...

The Microbiome Core was awarded CFAC Fall RFA 2025 funding to develop long-read sequencing capabilities within the Core. These funds will boost our efforts to introduce a new long-read sequencing service that supports advanced research needs.

Yunan Hu, a PhD candidate in Dr. Azcarate-Peril’s laboratory, has recently published a manuscript in Food Bioscience demonstrating that the prebiotics β(1–4) GOS and humanized β(1–4) GOS strengthen intestinal barrier function. Using human primary colonic monolayers, the study shows that both compounds upregulate MUC2 and key tight-junction genes, thereby enhancing...

Undergraduate researchers Nehal Devpura, Yoo Rim Lee, and Jin Ho Kim presented a poster at the North Carolina Branch–American Society for Microbiology (NC-ASM) conference highlighting their collaborative project, Prebiotic-Driven Dynamics of Lactobacillus Co-Cultures. The poster received the 2025 Jim Brown Award for Best Poster in recognition of this work.

The gut microbiome is widely recognized for its significant contribution to maintaining human health across all life stages, from infancy to adulthood and beyond. This perspective article focuses on the impacts of well-supported microbiome research on global caesarean delivery rates, breastfeeding practices, and antimicrobial use. The article also explores the...