Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center
Applications for Pilot and Feasibility Core Voucher Program is now closed
Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center (GLMC) early career investigators (ESI by NIH standards) with any microbiome-related proposal, or established GLMC investigators who want to pursue a new research direction (i.e. not previously funded) involving the microbiome and services from a GLMC core facility can apply. We will begin accepting new applications March 1, 2025 with a deadline date of April 1, 2025.
Seminar series
Join us for this monthly seminar series where invited guest speakers, Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center faculty and UCLA trainees present their latest research findings and discuss evolving areas of interest in the many ways the microbiome interacts with human health.
$9.5M grant to study relationship between polyphenol intake, Alzheimer’s prevention, and the brain-gut-microbiome system
UCLA Health researchers, in collaboration with researchers from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, have received $9.5M award from the National Institutes of Health with support from European funding agencies — The Science Foundation Ireland and the Public Health Agency Health & Social Care — to study the effects of polyphenols on cognitive health and the brain-gut microbiome system.
Latest news
Discrimination can cause changes in the gut microbiome, study says
In a new study published in Frontiers in Microbiology, Drs. Arpana Church and Tien S. Dong have found that people who experienced discrimination had pro-inflammatory bacteria and gene activity in their gut microbiome that was different from those who did not experience discrimination.
Caregiving adversity leads to changes in the oral microbiome, stress markers
In a new study, led by Bridget L. Callaghan, PhD, UCLA Health researchers found that youth who experienced caregiving adversity, described as having been mistreated or in foster care, had less variety in their oral microbiome compared to youth who remained living with their biological families. The same group also had more disease-causing bacteria in their oral microbiome, and their microbiome seemed less reactive to recent stress.
Infants’ microbiomes shaped by physical contact with caregivers
A new study led by researchers at UCLA Health found that early life caregiving experiences including skin-to-skin contact at birth, number of individuals in physical contact with the infant at birth, and the amount of time infants were in physical contact with caregivers were significantly associated with the composition of the infant gut microbiome up to six months of age.
UCLA receives grant to study gut-brain signaling in youth with anxiety, depression
Bridget L. Callaghan, PhD, Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center member and assistant professor of psychology at UCLA, was awarded $3,891,851 from the National Institute of Mental Health to study the microbiota-gut-brain axis pathways associated with depression and anxiety in adversity-exposed adolescents.
UCLA Health is the only institution awarded two NIH SCORE grants; both focus on the understudied area of sex differences
Science is still ignoring women's health, but UCLA Health researchers are fixing that. “Men and women could have different disease pathogenesis, different risk levels and different responses to treatments,” said Lin Chang, MD, co-principal investigator. “You really have to consider sex as a biological variable.”
Your gut microbes may influence how you handle stress
A study published in Nature Mental Health, led by Arpana Church, PhD, and Tien S. Dong, MD, PhD, finds distinct biological signatures in the microbiomes of people who are highly resilient in the face of stressful events.