Creativity in gut microbiome research: Finding your niche as an early career scientist

Gut microbiome research is a rapidly expanding field due to technological advances that make deeper analysis possible. Gut microbiome studies require a broad knowledge of the human body and the microbes that live in it as well as food science and specific analytical techniques. This field, like many others, requires flexibility, creativity, and an ever-present willingness to learn new techniques both at the bench and at your desk. Our research has demonstrated that we can model the endogenous human gut microbiome using in vitro techniques to provide insight on how different food additives, agricultural products, and medicine change the gut microbial community in terms of population and metabolic products.