# Causes and consequences of interpersonal microbial variation

> **NIH NIH R35** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $561,727

## Abstract

Project Summary
The human gastrointestinal tract harbors trillions of commensal microbes that collectively encode 150-fold
more genes than the human genome; between individuals, microbiome variation far exceeds genome
variation. Despite the possibility that the microbiome may represent a critical and readily modifiable component
of human biology, the contribution of the gut microbiota to health, disease risk, and response to therapy
remains largely undefined. The overall goal of our laboratory is to understand the principles, mechanisms, and
processes that shape the interaction between gut microbial communities and their hosts. Our strategy is to
combine anaerobic microbial genetics, high-throughput mass spectrometry, and gnotobiotic (germfree and ex-
germfree) animal models to dissect these interactions. In recent studies, we have used these approaches to
measure the contribution of the human gut microbiome to the metabolism of medical drugs and to define
cooperative, competitive, and antagonistic processes in the gut microbiome. Our progress in these areas
provides the basis for future studies centered on two themes. We will apply the metabolomic approaches we
developed for studying microbiome-mediated drug metabolism to xenobiotic compounds that aren't drugs,
including molecular components of food. Microbial genetic and gnotobiotic approaches also enable
investigation of how two processes that are not readily measured in microbiome surveys, within-host evolution
and phenotypic heterogeneity, contribute to host-microbiome interaction in the healthy and perturbed gut
environment. If successful, these studies will define causes and consequences of host-microbiome interaction
with broad implications for human health.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10841540
- **Project number:** 5R35GM118159-09
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Andrew L Goodman
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $561,727
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-06-10 → 2026-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10841540

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10841540, Causes and consequences of interpersonal microbial variation (5R35GM118159-09). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10841540. Licensed CC0.

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