Confronting the Mystery of the Microbiome

HMS researcher Marco Jost works to decode the cross talk between microbes and their human hosts.

Two years ago, with the unmistakable pop of a champagne cork, microbiologist Marco Jost launched his lab at Harvard Medical School. But that celebration was short-lived. Jost, sensing the vastness of the work ahead of him, set the bubbly aside and dove into his research on the human gut microbiome.

Jost, an assistant professor of microbiology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS, is working to decipher how the bacteria, fungi, and viruses dwelling inside us regulate our metabolism, modulate the activity of our genes, alter our immunity and, ultimately, how they protect our health and shape our risk for disease.

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