Ayres Lab
Principal Investigator: Janelle S Ayres
Institution: Salk Institute for Biological Studies (La Jolla, CA)
Primary Subfield: Immunology
Recruitment Status: ✅ Hiring Postdocs
Research Focus
Project Summary The overall goal of this proposal is to understand how host metabolic adaptations during infection promote co- operative defenses between a host and enteric pathogens to drive asymptomatic carriage and the eventual evolution of commensalism. The proposed studies utilize a natural in vivo host-pathogen involving a enteric bacterial pathogen that causes infectious colitis. In previous work, the Ayres lab discovered that host micronutrient metabolic adaptations during infection with enteric pathogens, regulates host carbohydrate metabolism leading to a phenomenon the Ayres lab calls “metabolic bribery”. This involves the allocation of carbohydrates to the niche of the pathogen (intestine) to increase availability for the pathogen to metabolize. The Ayres lab discovered that the metabolism of these specific carbohydrates by the pathogen suppressed pathogen virulence and disease, indicating this micronutrient regulation of host and pathogen macronutrient metabolism acts as an anti-virulence mechanism. In the new proposal, the Ayres lab presents exciting data demonstrating that micronutrient metabolism coordinates interactions between host glucose and lipid metabolism to…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R01AI114929-10: Tolerance defenses in host-microbiota interactions (2025)
- 5R01AI114929-09: Tolerance defenses in host-microbiota interactions (2024)
- 3OT2CA278714-01S2: CANCAN - SALK (2024)
Explore 700+ US Biology Labs on FindBioLabs.com