Our translational human microbiome research program focuses on gastrointestinal and airway microbiome interactions with host immunity that promote or prevent development/maintenance of chronic inflammatory disease. Taking a "populations to molecules" approach we leverage the microbiome to determine the origins of childhood allergy and asthma and the early life molecular and cellular drivers of immune dysfunction that lead to childhood disease development.
I lead an interdisciplinary group of microbiome researchers committed to understanding host-associated microbes, reducing these complex microbial ecologies to molecular mechanism, and applying these lessons to improve the practice of medicine. Our three major topics of interest right now are pharmacology, nutrition, and phage biology. While we love sequencing and gnotobiotic mice, our work is question-driven not limited to a specific approach.
Sergio E. Baranzini earned his degree in clinical biochemistry from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1992. He graduated from the same institution in 1997 obtaining a PhD with honors in human molecular genetics. The subject of his PhD thesis was the characterization of genetic mutations leading to Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy. Dr. Baranzini then moved to the University of California at San Francisco to specialize in the analysis of complex hereditary diseases, in particular multiple sclerosis. During his postdoctoral stay in UCSF Dr.
The Benioff Center for Microbiome Medicine (BCMM) stands committed to dismantling the structural barriers to education, research and employment endemic in our society, to promoting awareness of implicit bias and reinforcing inclusivity.
