Dr. John Kirby, Professor and Chair of Microbiology and Immunology at the Medical College of Wisconsin will be presenting a talk about his work entitled, “Gut Bacteria Burn Calories to Prevent Weight Loss.” Click here to read more about Dr. Kirby’s work.

The abstract is as follows:

Bacterial communication relies heavily on production and sensing of specialized metabolites, chemically similar to antibiotics and other pharmaceutically relevant compounds.  The Kirby lab at the Medical College of Wisconsin investigates bacterial intercellular interactions affected by specialized metabolites within communities found in soil and gut.

We have characterized “chemical jousting” during predator-prey dynamics between Bacilli and Myxococcus strains typically found in soil and extended our analyses to gut bacteria.  We recently identified Lactobacillus specialized metabolites in the gut that help maintain host energy balance and body mass composition.  Host energy balance can be disrupted by xenobiotics, leading to weight gain.  A role for probiotic metabolites will be discussed.

The presentation will begin at 4:00 PM in Lapham Hall N101, preceded by an informal reception from 3:45 – 4:00 PM. There will be a Happy hour following the presentation from 5:00 – 6:00 PM at the UWM Union Gasthaus.