Our Mission
The DFI aims to maximize good health and the economic, social, and personal benefits it delivers.
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DFI Host-Microbe Metabolomics Facility
The Duchossois Family Institute (DFI) Host-Microbe Metabolomics Facility (HMMF) features state of the art mass spectrometry based metabolomic capabilities in order to elucidate the role metabolites play in human health and disease. We provide targeted panels of metabolites that will be measured from various organisms and sample types and include amino acids, organic acids, tryptophan catabolites, neurotransmitters, carbohydrates, sugar phosphates, central carbon metabolism intermediates, fatty acids, nucleotides, bile acids and more.
DFI Microbiome Metagenomics Facility
The DFI Microbiome Metagenomics Facility (MMF) provides bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA gene and shotgun metagenomic sequence analyses on intestinal contents and other samples containing complex microbial populations. The MMF works with investigators to analyze microbiota sequence data from experimental and clinical samples. Analysis tools are available to classify bacterial sequences down to the genus level (and to the species level when possible) to determine both community membership and structure. Analyses include graphic visualization of the bacterial composition of individual samples and determination of microbial population diversity within and between samples.
Laboratories in the DFI
Comstock Lab
Laurie Comstock's lab studies the biology of a predominant order of bacteria of the human intestine, the Bacteroidales.
Light Lab
The Light Lab focuses its research on the role of the gut microbiome in human health and the basis and function of specialized bioelectrochemical activities across diverse bacteria.
Mimee Lab
The Mimee Lab develops strategies to engineer the microbiome in hopes of achieving precise control of microbiome composition and function in order to improve health and cure disease.
Mukherjee Lab
The overarching goal of the Mukherjee Lab is to understand how bacteria decode and integrate self-generated and environmental stimuli to control transitions between individual and collective behaviors.
Pamer Lab
The Pamer Lab studies interactions between pathogenic and beneficial bacteria and their mammalian hosts.
Raman Lab
Research in the Raman lab is motivated by two central questions: (1) What is the 'wiring diagram' of evolved systems? and (2) Why is the wiring diagram the way it is?