Quantitative Ecology of Host-associated Microbiomes – Lei Dai

Abstract: The realization that microbiomes, associated with virtually all multicellular organisms, have tremendous impact on their host health is considered as one of the most important scientific discoveries in the last decade. The host associated microbiomes, composed of tens to hundreds of co-existing microbial species, are highly heterogenous at multiple scales (e.g. between different hosts and within a host). In this talk, I will share our recent works on understanding the heterogeneity of complex microbial communities, and how these conceptual and technological advances in microbial ecology pave the way for precision microbiome engineering to prevent and treat diseases.