UCLA GOODMAN-LUSKIN MICROBIOME CENTER
Barely more than a year after it was launched in early 2023, the UCLA Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center, based in the Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, has hit the ground running.
The center facilitates multidisciplinary collaborations among the wide-ranging experts across the UCLA campus, all designed to investigate the role of the human microbiome in health and disease and to translate those findings into new strategies for health promotion, disease prevention, and treatment. The groundbreaking, interdisciplinary work is supported by seven research cores and one administrative core, which provide shared resources for specialized services that increase the efficiency and cost- effectiveness of the scientific endeavors. The research cores, now operational, include the Biorepository Core, the Clinical Studies and Database Core, the Gnotobiotics Core, the Human Probiotic Core, the Integrative Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core, the Microbiome Core, and the Neuroimaging Core. To help jump-start the promising, early-stage microbiome research programs of investigators just entering the field, the Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center’s Seed Funding Program has been established. The program already awarded its first five seed grants, and will soon expand these efforts to include a postdoctoral research fellowship and pilot and feasibility study awards, as well as educational programs in which leaders in the field share their latest insights. All of these activities are aimed at encouraging graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-career faculty to enter the field, engage with the center’s core facilities, and work with Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center mentors. Given the rapid developments in the field of microbiome and brain-gut microbiome research, opportunities for clinicians and researchers to share information and build relationships
that will facilitate further advances are especially valuable. In 2024, the center inaugurated a monthly seminar series where invited guest speakers, Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center faculty, and UCLA trainees can present their latest work and discuss evolving areas of interest. Established by a $20 million gift from Andrea and Donald Goodman and Renee and Meyer Luskin, the Goodman- Luskin Microbiome Center aims to accelerate progress in the promising area of the human microbiome and the role played by the trillions of microorganisms that reside in the human gut in health and disease. Through this multidisciplinary effort, the center has greatly expanded the breadth of UCLA scientists and clinicians who are taking on the most important challenges in this new frontier of scientific inquiry. The center’s research promises to identify new approaches to disease prevention and new treatments for a range of conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease; obesity and eating disorders; neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases, such as autism, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease; irritable bowel syndrome; and substance use and psychiatric disorders. The center is directed by Dr. Elaine Y. Hsiao, a leader in the field who was recently named among the world’s most influential researchers by the analytics firm Clarivate, based on having authored studies ranking among the top 1% worldwide in scholarly citations. In addition to the important scholarly publications of the center’s researchers, their work has recently been highlighted in major news outlets ranging from NBC News and The Today Show to Forbes and The Washington Post .
“The groundbreaking, interdisciplinary work is supported by seven research cores and one administrative core, which provide shared resources for specialized services that increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the scientific endeavors.”
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Beyond the Scope
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