Center of Excellence for Aging & Brain Repair
Gut-Brain Axis Laboratory
Our body harbors 10 times for microbes than human cells. Our gut has many neurons as our brain has, so it is a second brain in our body, explains the gut feeling theory. Recent research shows that community of microbes (“microbiome) living in our gut is significantly different individuals who has normal cognitive versus those with cognitive decline and dementia.
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Biomarker Discovery
The Microbiome in aging Gut and Brain (MiaGB) is a multi-university collaborative consortium project, which is paving the way to determine risk of age-related cognitive decline and dementia based on the microbiome of our oral cavity and gut.
We are actively recruiting participants who are 60 years or older and have concerns about memory and brain health. You can also participate if you are cognitively healthy.
Please contact us for more details and participation, on jains10@usf.edu or hyadav@usf.edu
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Personalized food for brain health
The “Food for Mood” program aims to design innovative functional foods to improve and preserve brain health. Our team of expert scientists has designed these food technologies and tested them for their efficacy. The overall goals of this project are to bring the science in the form of clinically proven foods for improving brain health and preserving it longer during aging.
If you are interested to know more about these technologies and/or would like to participate in our studies, please contact us at jains10@usf.edu and/or hyadav@usf.edu
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Personalized nutrition
Do you want to know which diet can help and/or hurt our health during aging? We have a research study ongoing to determine the impact of diets we eat on the gut microbiome thus on health. This study uses our patent-pending microbiome screening scheme to determine which diets have beneficial versus detrimental effects on the personalized microbiome, that can impact our short- and long-term aging health.
If you are interested to know more and participating in this study, please contact- Dr. Hariom Yadav (hyadav@usf.edu) and Shalini Jain (hyadav@usf.edu)
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Personalized nutrition
We have patent-pending formulations to mix the probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics in both cow milk, as well as in plant-based milk(s) customize yogurt drinks based on personalized microbiome signature combined with MoPED study results.
If you are interested to know more about this and participate in this study, please contact us at jains10@usf.edu and/or hyadav@usf.edu
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Food as medicine
This study is testing the efficacy of a ketogenic diet in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) to enhance recovery in the intensive care unit by modulating microbiome and inflammation. This is a team effort between the scientists at the CEABR (Drs. Shalini Jain and Hariom Yadav) and USF Neurosurgery (Drs. Jennifer Glover and Keith Dombrowski).
If you are interested to know more about this study, please contact us.
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Biomarker discovery
The microbiome can serve as an important source of biomarkers for cancer types, therapy response as well as cancer treatment side-effects. In this effort, we are conducting a Microbiome in Glioma (MiG) study that aims to determine the importance of microbiome differentiating glioma grades and cancer treatment side effects. This is a team effort between the scientists at the CEABR (Drs. Shalini Jain and Hariom Yadav) and USF Neurosurgery (Drs. Anthony Patrizz and Nam Tran).
If you are interested to know more about this study, please contact us.
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Food as medicine
Our preclinical research program is centered around how the gut microbiome, leaky gut influences inflammation which in turn impacts brain health. We are specialized in translating discoveries from bench (microbiology cultures, cells, and organoid cultures, C. elegans, and transgenic animals) to bedside (clinical studies) and vice-versa. We are highly thankful for the support from funding agencies like the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, and Florida Department of Health.
Current Projects
- Microbiome and its metabolites in aging-related leaky gut and inflammation
- Development of personalized probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, and postbiotics to ameliorate leaky gut and inflammation, and improve brain health
- Cellular mechanisms like gut hormones (GLP-1) and mucin in the gut-brain axis
- Role of free fatty acid receptor 2 and 3 (FFAR2/3) and Gi-signaling in the gut-brain axis
- Repurposing drugs to ameliorate aging-related disorders
