Microbial communities form a central interface between the host and its environment, integrating dietary, chemical, and physiological signals that influence health. My research has focused on this interface, addressing bidirectional interactions between xenobiotics, particularly drugs and contaminants, and the microbiome as well as host-microbiome interactions in the context of bariatric surgery and reproductive health. These studies have contributed to the understanding that microbiome perturbations arise under specific environmental and physiological conditions, and subsequently microbial. Communities influence host physiology through diverse metabolic activities. Accumulating evidence highlights nutrition as a major driver of microbiome structure and function and their downstream effects on the host.

My current and future research aims to leverage nutrition-microbiome interactions to direct microbial functions toward beneficial host outcomes. This approach seeks to enhance the production of metabolites that strengthen or preserve the integrity of critical host barriers and also reduce the harmful impacts of contaminants on host functions, particularly in relation to reproductive health. Overall, this work contributes to a functional understanding of the exposome-microbiome interactions and the development of strategies to harness microbial activity to improve host resilience and health.