People

Dr. Bradley is an emergency physician with a PhD in microbiology.  His research interest centers around utilization of high-throughput DNA sequencing to study the interaction between the human microbiome and infectious disease. Certain organisms in this community also influence innate and acquired immunity that can alter the course of infections once they take hold.  Dr. Bradley seek to determine what features of this community are associated with conditions such as recurrent urinary tract infection in the elderly or progression to severe pulmonary complications of respiratory viruses such as the novel corona virus that causes COVID19.

Systems and Synthetic Biology of Host-Microbial Interactions
Dr. Bucci has pioneered frequentist and Bayesian regression techniques to infer host-microbiome dynamics from time-series abundance data. He has applied these methods with both unsupervised and supervised machine learning approaches to (1) predict dynamics between intestinal commensal and enteropathogenic bacteria in both animal models and human clinical studies, (2) determine colonization potential and structural stability of bacterial therapeutics that induce anti-inflammatory responses, (3) identify bacteria and related functions that play central role in Alzheimer’s Disease etiology via immune-systems modulation, and (4) determine how the microbiome reprograms systemic gene expression following anti-TB therapy. In the experimental side of his research, Dr. Bucci works on the development of synthetically-engineered probiotics to decolonize multi-drug resistant Enterobacteriaceae from the gastrointestinal tract. 

Dr. Cho’s research interests focus on factors including the gut microbiome and their contributions towards the development of chronic kidney and renovascular disease as a consequence of congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract. 

Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Associate Professor of
Microbiology & Physiological Systems

Clinical Director of the Center for Microbiome Research

Dr. Haran’s research focuses on the development of the aging gut microbiome and how it influences age related diseases. He has a specific focus on multidrug resistant organism colonization and infection and the “microbiome-gut-brain axis” among elders with Alzheimer’s disease. 

Assistant Professor of Microbiology & Physiological Systems

Co-Founder, University of Massachusetts Center for Microbiome Research

Dr. Maldonado-Contreras’ laboratory is focused on developing evidence-based dietary interventions targeting microbiome-immune interactions to reduce inflammation - a key to curing out most prevalent chronic illnesses. Diet is a modifiable, non-invasive, inexpensive lifestyle change that rapidly shapes the microbiome. By merging clinical nutritional trials with multi-omics approaches my laboratory aims to: 1) Advance the mechanistic understanding of diet-microbiome interactions that leads to chronic inflammation, 2) Develop microbiota-centered therapies to lessen inflammation, and 3) Provide evidence-based dietary guidelines that can be readily integrated into clinical care.

Worcester Foundation Chair in Biomedical Sciences

Professor and Vice Chair Department of Microbiology & Physiological Systems

Founding Director Program in Microbiome Dynamics and the Center for Microbiome Research

Associate Professor of Microbiology and Physiological Systems

Director of Operations, Center for Microbiome Research

Dr. Ward’s laboratory applies microbioal genomic and metagenomic approaches to understand the epidemiology of pathogens in human diseases, and supports multi-omic approaches to understand the role of the microbiome in human health.