Michael C. Abt

Investigating Immune-Microbiome Interactions The goals of the Abt lab are to examine interactions between the microbiota and the immune system in the context of infectious disease. The microbiome, consisting of bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa, can modulate immune defense pathways thereby altering host susceptibility to infection. The lab’s research fuses the disciplines of mucosal immunology, microbial pathogenesis and microbial ecology to investigate mechanisms of immune homeostasis and protective immunity. Our research focuses on the pathogenesis of and host response to Clostridium difficile, a bacterium that infects the large intestine following perturbation of the intestinal microbiota. C. difficile represents one of the most urgent public health threats in the United States with high recurrence rates following antibiotic treatment, which highlights the need to identify alternative strategies to control this disease. C. difficile is the first disease effectively treated with microbiota-based therapeutics, however implementation of this therapy as a reliable treatment option is limited due to inadequate understanding of its mechanism of action. Using a murine model of C. difficile infection and human clinical samples, our research investigates immune-microbiota regulation of C. difficile associated disease. These studies seek to reveal insights that are broadly applicable to the treatment of infectious or inflammatory diseases driven by dysbiosis of the microbiome. The Abt lab is actively recruiting graduate students to join the lab. If you are interested in discussing rotation projects, visit https://abtlab.med.upenn.edu/ or send an email to michael.abt@pennmedicine.upenn.edu