Ilana L. Brito, Ph.D.

Research

The Brito lab investigates the mechanisms by which bacteria influence their hosts and prevent or cause disease. Often, this comes down to functions shared by multiple diverse species within the gut, making it difficult to find single causative species. The Brito lab is applying computational algorithms to discover protein-mediated host-microbe interactions and pioneering experimental screening approaches to determine microbial components that influence certain host functions. The lab has also examined the link between antibiotic usage and the emergence of multidrug-resistant microbes. To do so, the lab tracked horizontal gene transfer between species, applying single-cell methods that link mobile genes with their host genomes, allowing these genetic elements to be associated.

As an Innovation Fund investigator, Ilana Brito, Ph.D., is teaming up with Gabriel Victora, Ph.D., to explore the interactions between gut microbiota and intestinal immune cells. The pair will focus on germinal centers, where specialized immune cells that produce antibodies, known as B cells, undergo selection and maturation to produce high-affinity antibodies. The project combines Brito’s expertise in microbiota multiomics and bacterial engineering with Victora’s extensive experience in germinal center biology and mouse biotechnology. Together, the team will identify antigen specificities of individual B cells using libraries of protein sequences from model microbiota. They will then use genetically engineered bacteria and mice to estimate the affinity of each B cell in a germinal center. Thus, they hope to determine which commensal species and antigens are targeted by the immune system, whether certain shared antigens allow the immune system to more efficiently target the vast array of bacteria in the intestine, and the extent to which affinity maturation to bacterial antigens occurs in the intestine.