1. How would you sum up your research in one sentence?

I am interested in exploring the dietary and lifestyle determinants of gut microbial communities in GI disorders and have a complementary program exploring COVID-19 epidemiology.

2. What impact do you hope your research will have on patients?

As a physician-scientist, I hope our team-based work will culminate in the development of novel therapeutic interventions that rationally target and manipulate gut microbial ecology.

3. What inspired you to focus your research career on the gut microbiome?

Given the still emerging role of the gut microbiome in a variety of GI disorders, as well as ongoing mentorship from Drs. Andrew T. Chan and Curtis Huttenhower, I felt an early career emphasis on gut microbial engineering and therapeutics would be both scientifically fulfilling and exciting.

4. Could you give us a quick update on your work funded by the AGA-Takeda COVID-19 Rapid Response Research Award?

In no small part, thanks to the generous support of the AGA-Takeda COVID-19 Rapid Response Research Award, we are in the process of harmonizing and uniformly pre-processing gut microbiome samples from several institutions to deeply explore the impact of GI symptoms on COVID-19 risk and severity.

5. What recent publication from your lab best represents your work, if anyone wants to learn more?

Nguyen, L.H. et al. Gastroenterology. 2020 Apr;158(5):1313-1325. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2019.12.029. Epub 2020 Jan 20.

Nguyen, L.H., Drew, D.A., Graham, M.S. et al. Lancet Public Health. 2020 Sep;5(9):e475-e483. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30164-X. Epub 2020 Jul 31.

Drew, D.A., Nguyen, L.H. et al. Science. 2020 Jun 19;368(6497):1362-1367. doi: 10.1126/science.abc0473. Epub 2020 May 5.