Research Summary:

Humans, like other animals, are born germ-free.  However, once born, we are rapidly colonized with microbial cells that outnumber our own eukaryotic cells 10 to 1. The largest assemblage of microbes resides in the gut, where densities can approach 10¹² cells/mL. The collective genome (microbiome) of our microbial partners complements and enhances our primate genome: we depend on our microbial partners for essential services such energy harvest from food and its detoxification, supplying vitamins, and protection against harmful invaders of our body surfaces. Although the human genome has been sequenced, characterization of the microbiome is just beginning.  Surveys of the microbial lineages that form the microbiome (by 16S rRNA analysis) are becoming more extensive, and metagenomic analyses are revealing its functions.  

                                           
Research in the Ley laboratory will address basic questions about human evolution in the microbial world: How has the microbiome co-evolved with its animal host species? How do host genetics relate to the structure of gut microbial communities? Does its composition make the host more or less predisposed to disease?  To answer these questions requires data derived from an integration of high throughput sequencing technology such as pyrosequencing with experimental approaches.

Biographical Sketch:

 

Ruth Ley earned a B.A. in Integrative Biology from the University of California Berkeley. Her graduate training was at the University of Colorado Boulder with Steven Schmidt.  Dr. Ley was an NRC Post-Doctoral Research Associate with Norman Pace at the University of Colorado, Boulder from 2001-2004.  Her post-doctoral training continued with Jeffrey Gordon at Washington University School of Medicine’s Center for Genome Science from 2004-2007. She was an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Developmental Biology at Washington University School of Medicine from 2007-2008 and joined the Cornell faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Fall of 2008. 

Recent Awards:

2009: Beckman Young Investigator

2009: Pew Biomedical Scholar (declined)

2007: Kavli Fellow, National Academy of Sciences

Click here for a PubMed listing of Dr. Ley's publications.

 

Selected Recent Publications:

Turnbaugh, P.J., M. Hamady, T. Yatsunenko, B.L. Cantarel, A. Duncan, R.E. Ley, M.L. Sogin, W.J. Jones, B.A. Roe, J.P. Affourtit, M. Egholm, B. Henrissat, A.C. Heath, R. Knight and J.I. Gordon. 2009. A core gut microbiome in obese and lean twins. Nature 457:480-484.

Wen*, L, R. Ley*, P. Volchkov*, P. Stranges, L. Avanesyan, A. Stonebraker, C. Hu, F.S. Wong, G.L. Szot, J.A. Bluestone, J.I. Gordon and A.V. Chervonsky. 2008. Innate immunity and intestinal microbiota in the development of Type 1 diabetes. Nature 455:1109-1113.

Ley*, R.E., C.A. Lozupone*, M. Hamedy, R. Knight and J.I. Gordon. 2008. Worlds within worlds: evolution of the vertebrate gut microbiota. Nature Reviews Microbiology 6:776-788.Ley, R. E., P. Turnbaugh, S. Klein and J. I. Gordon.2006.Human gut microbial ecology linked to obesity.Nature 444: 1022-1023.