Tien Dong
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Humans carry vast numbers of viruses, together called the human virome, in places like the mouth and gut. These viruses may influence health and disease, including links along the oral–gut–brain axis, the connection between the mouth, the digestive tract and the brain.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Microbiology & Immunology
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
human virome
oral-gut-brain axis
microbiome
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jan 2030
What they work on
- Establish standardized biospecimen collection procedures for virome analysis, including protocol development, personnel training, ongoing monitoring and a quality-control system across the consortium.
- Manage samples and data in a biospecimen management system and secure online repository that supports data sharing while meeting ethical and legal standards.
- Coordinate biospecimen preparation, shipment and data exchange with the Biospecimen Analysis and Data Analysis and Submission Cores and Human Virome Project partners.
- Ensure ethical compliance in review board processes, informed consent and reporting in partnership with the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) Core.
More about the research
Studying them reliably depends on high-quality biological samples collected the same way at every site, with careful ethical safeguards.
Why it matters
A well-documented, ethically collected sample repository could let researchers across the Human Virome Project study how viruses in the mouth and gut relate to health and disease, including conditions linked to the brain such as depression. Shared, standardized samples and data may make findings more comparable across institutions.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Sara Javornik Cregeen
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Microbiology & Immunology
Process and analyze virome sequencing data from the center's Biospecimen Analysis Core, using integrated bioinformatics pipelines that start primary processing as soon as data are generated.
Inmaculada De Melo-Martin
Stanford University, CA·Social Science
Analyze the ethical meanings and practices of human virome research in clinical and public health settings through normative analysis, coordinated across the VAST Center's cores.
Whitney Maxwell
University of Utah, UT·Medicine & Clinical Research
Provide cancer genetics expertise, genetic counseling services and counseling interventions to cancer center researchers studying hereditary cancer across the State of Utah.
The school
University of California-Los Angeles: 84 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 803 research doctorates a year.
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