About Us

The Jacobs Laboratory uses a translational approach to study the role of the intestinal microbiome in human disease. Our projects involve the following methods:

1. Fecal and intestinal sample collection from patients, their family members, and unrelated healthy controls for detailed multi'omics analysis (16S ribosomal RNA sequencing, metagenomics, metabolomics, proteomics)
2. Colonization of germ-free mice with human microbiota (i.e. humanized gnotobiotic mice)
3. Animal models of IBD and other diseases (e.g. dextran sodium sulfate colitis, IL-10-/- mice, TL1a transgenic mice)
4. Transgenic, knockout, and gene-edited mice that model the effects of disease-associated genetic variants on the intestinal microbiome
5. Co-cultures of microbes and epithelial/immune cells

The Jacobs Laboratory also houses the Microbiome Core for the UCLA Microbiome Center. Our core was established to meet the rapidly growing demand for microbiome analysis of feces, biopsies, mucosal swabs, and lavage samples and to reduce barriers to entry into the microbiome field for researchers at UCLA and other Los Angeles area institutions.

Location

10833 Le Conte Ave
Center for Health Sciences Building A3-115
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Lab contacts

Jonathan Jacobs, MD, PhD
Director, Microbiome Core, UCLA Microbiome Center
Principal Investigator
JJacobs@mednet.ucla.edu

Venu Lagishetty, PhD
Manager, Microbiome Core, UCLA Microbiome Center
Project Scientist
VLagishetty@mednet.ucla.edu