Elaine Hsaio

Dr. Hsiao holds the Goodman-Luskin Endowed Chair in Microbiome Research at UCLA and serves as Director of UCLA's Microbiome Center.

Minding our gut microbes:
Uncovering mechanisms & applications for microbiome-nervous system interaction

The gut microbiome is emerging as a powerful modifier of animal behavior, neural activity, and brain development. Yet the core principles that govern these interkingdom, cross organ dialogues remain unclear and so do the best strategies to translate them into therapies. In this talk, I will outline our recent progress on two fronts. First, how microbial signals engage active sensory pathways for gut interoception to shape neural activity and behavior.

Second, the maternal microbiome molds early neurodevelopment with lasting consequences for later-life behavior. I will further describe how these mechanistic insights are beginning to guide discovery of candidate interventions, including engineered live biotherapeutics, native bacterial probiotics, and small molecule "postbiotics", that target pathways for gut-brain crosstalk to mitigate symptoms of neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders. Our findings begin to define molecular and cellular pathways from gut microbial ecology to neural systems and point to potential opportunities for non-invasive microbiome-informed interventions for brain and behavioral disorders.