Bio
The Zeng laboratory is focused on studying the role of the gut microbiome and maternal-fetal/neonatal immune crosstalk in the development of neonatal or pediatric inflammatory diseases, such as preterm birth, necrotizing enterocolitis, food allergies, asthma, and cancer. Ongoing studies in our laboratory involve in vitro cell biology, microbiology, and immunology assays, disease models in gnotobiotic mice or genetic knockout mice, and examination of clinical samples from newborns and children. Our studies are aimed to identify gut bacteria, bacterial factors or dietary factors that could be potential therapeutic candidates to facilitate appropriate immune responses in early life, with the overarching goal to develop gut microbiome-based preventive approaches to lower the incidence of diseases that are partly attributable to dysregulated immune cell education in early life.
Lab website: https://zeng-lab.org/