Jonathan P. Jacobs, MD, PhD
Director, Microbiome Core, UCLA Microbiome Center
Principal Investigator

Dr. Jacobs is a gastroenterologist and scientist studying the role of intestinal microbes in digestive diseases. He graduated magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard University with an AB in biochemistry. He subsequently received his MD from Harvard Medical School, graduating magna cum laude in a special field. During college and medical school, he trained in an immunology laboratory studying rheumatoid arthritis with funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Stanford University then joined UCLA to pursue gastroenterology training in the Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) program. He was awarded a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Pathology for his IBD microbiome research under the mentorship of Jonathan Braun and afterwards joined the UCLA Vatche and Tamar Division of Digestive Diseases faculty. He co-founded the UCLA Microbiome Center in 2015 and now directs the Microbiome Core, which provides a comprehensive suite of microbiome-related services to support microbiome research by the UCLA scientific community. His research has been published in a wide range of scientific journals including Gastroenterology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Microbiome, Gut Microbes, and Scientific Reports. Ongoing projects in his laboratory employ animal models and multi’omics analysis of patient cohorts to define the role of microbes and their products in IBD, obesity, colon cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, and other diseases..

Venu Lagishetty, PhD
Manager, Microbiome Core, UCLA Microbiome Center
Project Scientist

Dr. Lagishetty received his undergraduate (1994-1997) and master's (1998-2000) degrees at Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. He received his PhD degree (biochemistry) in 2007 from the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, India. He started his postdoctoral research at UCLA with Dr. Martin Hewison in 2007. His research explored the effects of vitamin D-insufficiency on immune function in mice and its impact on models of inflammatory bowel disease. He then joined Dr. Jonathan Braun's lab at UCLA as a research associate studying the intestinal microbiome. Currently, Dr. Lagishetty is an assistant project scientist in the Jacobs Lab studying the impact of local microbial communities on chronic mucosal inflammatory disease. He takes an active role in management of the UCLA Microbiome Core, which performs 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing of human and animal samples. He is responsible for development of an integrated approach to study microbial ecology in the gut using metagenomics, metaproteomics, and metabolomics. Dr. Lagishetty has published over 29 papers in peer reviewed journals and has one issued patent. 

Tien S. Dong, MD, PhD
Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine

Dr. Dong graduated with distinction from Stanford University with a BS in biological sciences. He subsequently received his MD from the University of Chicago. He completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Chicago, where he stayed on as faculty for an additional year as a liver hospitalist. While at the University of Chicago, he trained in the laboratory of Dr. Eugene Chang where he investigated the role of the gut microbiome on microRNAs and colon cancer. He then joined UCLA as a gastroenterology fellow in 2016 and continued his research training at UCLA through the Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) program under the mentorship of Dr. Joseph Pisegna and Dr. Jonathan P. Jacobs. He finished his PhD in molecular, cellular and integrative physiology in 2020. Dr. Dong is board-certified in internal medicine and board-eligible in gastroenterology.
 
Dr. Dong's research interest involves machine learning and how the intestinal microbiome influences the development of obesity, metabolic syndrome, chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. His clinical interests include cirrhosis, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, alcoholic liver disease, autoimmune hepatitis and other chronic liver diseases.

Nerea Arias, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar

Dr. Arias is a native of Bilbao, Spain. She received her BSc in biology from the Alcalá de Henares University, Spain, in 2012 and her MSc in microbiology from the University of Basque Country, Spain, in 2014. She then completed a PhD on immunology and microbiology from AZTI (a food research foundation) and the University of Basque Country, Spain, in 2018. Her PhD thesis was titled, "Exploring new frontiers in host-microbiome interactions using zebrafish." She studied the interactions between the microbiota and immune system in zebrafish fed a high-fat diet, and also tried to establish a humanized model of gnotobiotic zebrafish. After receiving her PhD, Dr. Arias worked in IATA-CSIS in Valencia, Spain, as a postdoctoral fellow on a project titled, "Metamorphosis." It involved use of zebrafish to test the effect of an insect protein supplement on microbiota and innate immunity. Dr. Arias has joined the Jacobs Laboratory to continue her training in the microbiome field. She will be involved in projects using human microbiota samples and gnotobiotic mice to further understand inflammatory bowel disease. 

Julianne Yang
Graduate Student

Julianne is a PhD student in the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology Program who began her adventures in the Jacobs Lab in January 2020. She completed a BS in biochemistry and a minor in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she wrote her undergraduate thesis on how autism and epilepsy-linked mutations in potassium ion channels regulate their trafficking and membrane expression in neurons. She is primarily interested in mechanisms by which the gut microbiome regulates neurological diseases, which can also then inform mechanisms of gut-brain communication in the healthy state. She is currently learning how to analyze 16S rRNA sequence data and plans to expand her data analysis repertoire to encompass other types of sequencing data as well. In her free time, she likes to zip around on a skateboard and spend time serving her cats.

Candace Chang
Graduate Student

Candace is a PhD student in the Molecular Toxicology Program under the joint mentorship of Dr. Jacobs and Dr. Jesus Araujo. In 2017, She completed her BS at UCLA in environmental science with a concentration in environmental health. She then volunteered at the UCI School of Medicine in the Air Pollution Health Effects Laboratory, where she participated in a cardiovascular project exploring the oxidative effects of particulate matter in ApoE -/- mice. This involved monitoring inhalation exposures and managing data from instruments such condensation particle counter and photometric ozone analyzer, as well as examining lungs for inflammatory cytokine expression and arteries for atherosclerotic plaque formation. Candace joined the Jacobs Laboratory to study the exciting, dynamic relationship that the gut microbiome has with the environment and its role in the etiology of IBD. Her dissertation project will encompass microbiome research of various mouse models to elucidate mechanisms by which inhaled ultra fine particles may cause intestinal inflammation.

Yi Zhou, MS
Visiting Graduate Researcher

Zhou is a senior PhD student majoring in preventive veterinary medicine at Sichuan Agricultural University, China. He works in the Jacobs Laboratory as a visiting graduate researcher through a two-year CSC (China Scholarship Council) scholarship. Zhou has been engaged in animal microecology research since starting his master's degree in 2013. For his PhD thesis project, he has investigated the effect of panda derived probiotics on the intestinal microbiome and immune system of pandanized mice (i.e. mice colonized with panda-derived microbiota) in the setting of DSS-induced colitis. Zhou has joined the Jacobs Laboratory to study the effects of Crohn's disease associated genetic variants on the intestinal microbiota and susceptibility to intestinal inflammation. This has provided him with the opportunity for additional training in gnotobiotic models and microbiome data analysis as he completes his PhD training.

Will Katzka
Technician

Will earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology at The University of Chicago. Following graduation, Will worked as a laboratory technician under Dr. Stephanie Dulawa for The University of Chicago and later the University of California, San Diego. His research, while in the Dulawa Lab, focused on epistatic modifiers of the BTBD3 gene and its role in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Will first learned about the microbiome while researching the effects of the gut-brain axis on psychiatric disorders, then decided to focus specifically on the microbiome upon arriving at UCLA. Since joining the Jacobs Laboratory, Will has primarily worked with the Microbiome Core and also contributes to research involving transgenic animal models and co-cultures of microbes with epithelial/immune cells in order to gain a greater understanding of inflammatory bowel disease. 

Kang Lee, MD, PhD
Visiting Scientist

Dr. Lee is a visiting scientist from Hanyang University, Korea. He received his MD from Hanyang University in 1999, completed residency training in internal medicine in 2008, completed gastroenterology fellowship training in 2010, and received a PhD in internal medicine from Hanyang University in 2011. Afterwards, he has worked as an associate professor of medicine with clinical and research interests in inflammatory bowel disease, functional GI disorders, and endoscopic diagnosis/treatment of early gastrointestinal malignancies. He has confronted many challenges in managing IBD which have motivated him to pursue research to improve the quality of life of his IBD patients. To that end, he has joined the Jacobs Laboratory to study the association between intestinal bacteria/fungi and clinical outcomes in IBD and identify novel predictive biomarkers that could be used to guide treatment decisions for IBD patients..

Fengting Liang
Undergraduate

Fengting is a third year UCLA student from Thousand Oaks, California, who is currently pursuing a degree in physiological sciences. She has enjoyed learning about how the microbiome can affect health and various diseases, and is thankful for the opportunity to improve her laboratory skills while doing so. Fengting's responsibilities in the Jacobs Lab range from extracting, amplifying, and purifying DNA from mouse or human samples, as well as preparing tissue slides for histological analysis. In her free time, Fengting dances in Synthesis Dance Theater at UCLA, enjoys spending time with friends, and loves to explore all the food and activities LA has to offer.

Kayti Luu
Research Coordinator

Kayti is a second year life sciences major at UCLA. Originally from Singapore and raised in Orange County, Kayti enjoys having the best of both cultures. She frequently travels back and forth between Southern California beaches and Singapore - often visiting tropical locales along the way - to mix in with both lifestyles. Her love for food and interest in how diet affects health motivated her to research the digestive diseases. She is currently studying the use of bacteriophages to target potentially pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli in inflammatory bowel disease. She is passionate about science and particularly enjoys working closely alongside her labmates to perform experiments as a team. An avid tennis player, Kayti enjoys participating in outdoor physical activities.

Aaron Ahdoot
Undergraduate Student

Aaron is an undergraduate at UCLA pursuing a degree in biochemistry. Aaron's past research experience includes working at Biomerica, a biomedical company located in Irvine, CA. There he worked on a diagnostic project aimed at identifying foods in an individual's diet that can cause a heightened immune response and when removed, can alleviate symptoms of a number of digestive diseases including Irritable Bowel Syndrome. This research led him to join the Jacobs lab, where he has been involved in a study that aims to better characterize the brain-gut-microbiome axis and its role in gastrointestinal diseases. His other lab responsibilities include performing microbial DNA extraction and 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing of human and animal samples. After completing his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry, Aaron hopes to pursue an MD along with a PhD in medicinal chemistry.

Albert Duong
Undergraduate Student

Albert is a second year biology major from Sacramento, California. He joined the lab to gain experience with biomedical research and learn more about how our microbiome plays a role in our health. His long-term goal is to attend medical school and ultimately become either a primary care physician or a pathologist, depending on whether he decides on a primarily clinical or research focus for his career. Albert enjoys drawing, playing games, cooking, and going to church.

Jason Ye
Undergraduate Student

Jason is a second year UCLA undergraduate student from Warren, New Jersey, who is pursuing a degree in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. He is particularly interested in cancer research and was inspired by his work on a clinical cancer drug trial at Bristol-Myers Squibb and as a research assistant at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center at the Tuomas Tammela Lab. As an undergraduate in the Jacobs Laboratory, he strives to contribute to ongoing microbiome research projects and to develop his capability in research in general. Jason plans to one day attend medical school and pursue a career in oncology. In his free time, Jason enjoys jogging, weightlifting, playing chess, and reading.