26 Jan 2022

The Human Microbiome and Health Inequities

How variations in microbial communities affect health outcomes across populations and the role of socioeconomic factors.

This presentation examines how the human microbiome influences health disparities, focusing on how microbial diversity varies across populations due to socioeconomic factors and healthcare access. Dr. Amato will discuss how these differences in microbial communities affect disease susceptibility and overall health outcomes, emphasizing the interplay between diet, environmental factors, and systemic inequities. Key themes include the microbiome's role in shaping vulnerability to diseases and how targeted microbiome-informed strategies could help reduce health disparities and promote greater equity in health.

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Dr. Amato is a biological anthropologist studying how gut microbes influence host ecology and evolution. Her research examines the impact of gut microbiota on host nutrition, energetics, and health, using non-human primates as models to understand host-gut microbe interactions.

She focuses on how the gut microbiome buffers hosts during nutritional stress and programs inter-specific metabolic differences. Additionally, she explores global variations in the human gut microbiome and their implications for local adaptation.

Dr. Amato holds an A.B. in Biology from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since joining the Department of Anthropology in 2015, she has held various leadership roles, including President of the Midwest Primate Interest Group and Associate Editor at Microbiome.