Matthew Olm
University of Colorado Boulder, CO·Microbiology & Immunology
Babies are born without gut bacteria. Over their first three years, a community of microbes moves in and settles, in an orderly sequence that ecologists call succession.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Ecology & Evolution
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
infant gut microbiome
microbiome assembly
ecological succession
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2031
What they work on
- Identify ecological forces linked to diverging infant microbiomes through multi-omics profiling of global infant groups. Measure breast milk sugars (HMOs), diet, maternal IgA antibody binding, keystone microbes, and whether microbes come from the mother.
- Test how diet, IgA antibodies, keystone microbes that alter gut pH and oxygen, and starting microbial diversity shape microbial succession, using high-throughput anaerobic fermentation experiments.
- Confirm key ecological effects in gnotobiotic (germ-free, microbe-defined) mice. Measure the impact on immune development and test whether manipulating these forces can steer microbiome assembly toward immune-protective states.
More about the research
The team's earlier work showed that this sequence differs between populations around the world. These differences mirror global differences in immune disease rates. This suggests that some ways of building a microbiome support immune development better than others. The project asks why immune diseases are far more common in infants in industrialized countries, and what forces steer infant microbiomes down different paths.
Why it matters
Immune diseases are far more common in infants raised in industrialized countries. Identifying the forces that steer early microbiome development could reveal microbial and immune levers to protect children. Future preventive strategies could include diet changes, IgA-based approaches, probiotics or lifestyle changes. These might be tested in low-risk clinical trials aimed at steering infant microbiomes toward immune-protective states.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Carrie Cowardin
University of Virginia, VA·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether gut microbiota from stunted human infants drive dysregulated intestinal immunity, using germ-free mice colonized with stunted or healthy infant microbiota whose pups are weaned onto a nutrient-deficient diet.
Meng Wu
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Identify the gut stromal cell populations that fail to produce the immune signals needed for B-cell development and antibody production, using germ-free mice colonized with gut microbes from human donors who responded poorly to oral cholera vaccine.
June Louise Round
University of Utah, UT·Microbiology & Immunology
Catalog which commensal viruses in stool from healthy humans are bound by mucosal IgA and IgG antibodies, by purifying and sorting antibody-coated DNA and RNA viral particles.
The school
University of Colorado Boulder: 36 labs on PI Pages, $718M a year on research, 447 research doctorates a year.
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