Dr. Taft’s research interests include the development of the term infant microbiome and infant acquisition of gut commensals that carry antimicrobial resistance genes and pathobionts.

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Dr. Taft is interested in how diet and environmental factors interact to shape the infant gut microbiome, and human health. This interest includes both how dietary fiber enables infant colonization by probiotic species of bacteria, and how diet alters infant risk of carrying potentially harmful antimicrobial resistant bacteria and pathobionts. The long term goals of Dr. Taft’s research are 1) to understand the role of diet in maintaining bacteria species important to human health in populations and 2) to develop dietary interventions to reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance genes.

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• Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Microbiology). University of California Davis (2021).
• Postdoctoral Researcher (Immunogenetics). Cincinnati Children’s Hospital (2016).
• Ph.D. (Epidemiology). University of Cincinnati (2014).
• B.A. (Biology and Chemistry). Cornell University (2007).

Dr. Taft’s lab welcomes students to apply for a) graduate assistantship positions and b) undergraduate research training experiences.