Karen Guillemin PhD

Karen Guillemin is a Professor of Biology in the Institute of Molecular Biology at the University of Oregon and the founding director of the Microbial Ecology and Theory of Animals (META) Center for Systems Biology. Her research group has pioneered approaches for studying host-microbe systems biology using gnotobiotic models animals, with a major emphasis on the model vertebrate, the zebrafish. Combining gnotobiology with live imaging, molecular genetics, structural biology, and mathematical modeling, her laboratory investigate how intestinal microbial communities assemble and impact host biology during development. Her research has uncovered important roles for the resident microbiota in regulating intestinal epithelial homeostasis and inflammation, providing insights into the etiology of human diseases of excessive cell proliferation and inflammation and possible avenues for microbiota-based therapies for these diseases.