Introducing new member of Bio2Q

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Cody Gene Cole as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Bio-1 Core of Bio2Q.

“Hello everyone, I’m thrilled to be joining Bio2Q as a postdoctoral researcher and help contribute to its mission of advancing our understanding of the human microbiome. My passion for this field began as an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin, where I worked with Dr. Nancy Moran, a leader in insect symbiont research. There, I studied how symbionts in pea aphids shape their host’s health, sparking my curiosity about the intricate roles microbes play in living systems.

After graduating, I joined Dr. Bryan Davies’ lab as a research technician, where I helped develop antimicrobial peptides to combat multi-drug resistant pathogens like Acinetobacter baumannii. That experience deepened my interest in how microbes interact with each other, leading me to graduate school at the University of Chicago’s Duchossois Family Institute under Dr. Eric Pamer. My PhD research explored how certain gut bacteria, which produce broad-spectrum bacteriocins known as lantibiotics, can disrupt the gut microbiome in ways that allow pathogens like Klebsiella pneumoniae and Clostridioides difficile to thrive. These findings opened my eyes to the complex balance of microbial communities and their impact on health.

I continue to be amazed at how much progress has been made in microbiome field, and yet how little we still actually know. I’m excited to bring my background to Bio2Q, where I hope to collaborate with all of you on projects that explore the gut microbiome’s role in health and disease.”

>>Bio2Q Members List