Abigail Lind, PhD

Gladstone Institute

University of California San Francisco

From Commensals to Pathogens: Host-Associated Microbial Eukaryotes Through the Lens of Genomics and Evolution

Humans coexist with myriad microbes that live within and on us, impacting our health in beneficial and detrimental ways. Eukaryotic microbes, including protists and fungi, are emerging as key members of the microbiome that influence other microbiota and host health in multifaceted ways. Dr. Lind has developed methods to identify eukaryotic microbes in microbiomes, and discovered multiple commensal protists are common members of a healthy gut. Using comparative and functional genomics approaches she has identified key biological principles of these understudied protists.

Host: Dr. Patrick McGrath