Gut pathogen virulence and its therapeutic modulation during surgical injury

The project hypothesizes that recovery from surgical injury/infection depends on gut microbiome-generated metabolites that properly time and regulate macrophage function. It will address three specific aims: 1) Define the relationship between gut microbiota, its metabolites, and macrophage phenotypes that predict recovery from surgical infection. 2) Determine the composition of gut microbiome metabolites that activate macrophages co-cultured with S. marcescens to express a survival-related phenotype and define the mechanisms involved. 3) Enrich the mouse gut with select microbial consortia that are high producers of survival-related gut metabolites and determine the mechanisms by which they enhance macrophage function and survival following surgical injury/infection.