Mission Statement
The Duchossois Family Institute (DFI) investigates the role of the microbiome in resistance and susceptibility to infectious, inflammatory, and autoimmune diseases. The gut microbiome consists of dynamic ecosystems of microbes that have evolved to exist in symbiosis with humans. At the DFI, our goals are to further characterize this organ using a multi-omic approach. We have established the DFI Host-Microbe Metabolomics Facility (HMMF) to measure, characterize, and identify the metabolites produced or modified by gut microbes in order to better understand the roles they play in mammalian physiology. We aim to support the understanding of how these molecules function in microbe-microbe and host-microbe interactions/communication and how these processes influence human health and disease.
What Is Metabolomics?
Metabolomics is a field of biomedical research that focuses on the measurement and characterization of biologically derived small molecules (or metabolites). Identification of the metabolites produced by a biological system, their relative levels, and/or changes in their abundances are among the best indicators of what a cell is doing or encountering at any given moment in time. By understanding these changes, we can elucidate a functional understanding of various physiological processes, such as how a drug is acting on a cell/system, how one microbe is modifying its environment to outcompete others, or how our body is reacting to a disease. Using mass spectrometry–based metabolomics, we can identify novel disease biomarkers in a non-invasive fashion, discover new bioactive molecules that are produced by microbes, and find druggable targets for various diseases. Genomics tells us what is possible for a microbe to do, while metabolomics tells us what the microbial community is doing right now.