The Byrd Lab investigates the role of microorganisms in health and disease, with a particular focus on the gut microbiome — a complex community of bacteria, fungi and viruses that influence immune system activity, disease progression, and response to therapy. By analyzing clinical stool samples, the lab seeks to identify microbial patterns that may serve as biomarkers for disease or predictors of treatment outcomes.
Complementing these studies, the Byrd Lab draws on a healthy control population of 1,000 individuals to understand how lifestyle, genetics and other factors shape the gut microbiome and its interactions with metabolism and systemic immunity. The lab also explores microbes that reside directly within tissues, such as colorectal tumors and gastrointestinal biopsies, developing methods to detect microbes even in very low-abundance samples.
Allyson Byrd, PhD
Lab Members
Jay Jawahar, PhD
Vanessa Matti
Research Projects
Steady-State Microbiome and Metabolome
The Byrd Lab studies how the gut microbiome and its metabolic products — known as the metabolome — shape human health.
Longitudinal Microbiome Dynamics in Patients With Cancer and Immune-Mediated Diseases
The Byrd Lab is exploring how the human microbiome — the diverse community of microbes living in the gut — changes over time in patients undergoing cancer treatment or with other immune system diseases.
Local Effects of Microbes in Tissues
The Byrd Lab studies how microbes influence health and disease — not just systemically through gut-derived metabolites, but locally within tissues themselves.
Featured Publications
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Enrichment of oral-derived bacteria in inflamed colorectal tumors and distinct associations of Fusobacterium in the mesenchymal subtype
Cell Rep MedYounginger BS, Mayba O, Reeder J, Nagarkar DR, Modrusan Z, Albert ML, Byrd AL -
Gut microbiome stability and dynamics in healthy donors and patients with non-gastrointestinal cancers.
J Exp MedByrd AL, Liu M, Fujimura KE, Lyalina S, Nagarkar DR, Charbit B, Bergstedt J, Patin E, Harrison OJ, Quintana-Murci L, Mellman I, Duffy D, Albert ML, Milieu Intérieur Consortium. -
The human skin microbiome
Nature Reviews MicrobiologyByrd AL, Belkaid Y, Segre JA -
Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis strain diversity underlying pediatric atopic dermatitis
Sci Transl MedByrd AL, Deming C, Cassidy SKB, Harrison OJ, Yang WI, Conlan S, NISC Comparative Sequencing Program, Belkaid Y, Segre JA, Kong HH -
Temporal Stability of the Human Skin Microbiome
CellOh J, Byrd AL, Park M, NISC Comparative Sequencing Program, Kong HH, Segre JA
Innovation Fund Backs Exciting New Research
Allyson Byrd, PhD, and Cate Speake, PhD, are exploring an innovative tool in immunology research. The questions they can ask are limitless.
Innovation Fund Spotlight: Exploring Immune System Cells and Gut Bacteria
Allyson Byrd, PhD, is an expert in the gut microbiome, the study of the tiny organisms that live inside our digestive system. James Lord, MD, PhD, is a gastroenterologist who has studied inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis for more than 20 years.
Allyson Byrd, PhD: Can Gut Bacteria Help Treat Cancer?
Why does a medicine work for one person, but not another with the same disease? Dr. Byrd is seeking answers in a place that some people might find surprising.
