Weill Cornell Medicine investigators have developed a set of molecular tools to regulate the activity of specific genes in one of the most common classes of intestinal bacteria.

A new study reveals how bacteria in the gut can help determine whether the amino acid asparagine from the diet will feed tumor growth or activate immune cells against the cancer​, according to researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Bacteria naturally present in the human intestine, known as the gut microbiota, can transform cholesterol-derived bile acids into powerful metabolites that strengthen anti-cancer immunity by blocking androgen signaling, according to a preclinical study led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

Dr. Randy Longman, director of the Jill Roberts Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease and an associate professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, and colleagues have received the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award to develop the tools needed to understand how the gut microbiome drives metabolic pathways.

Microbes in the mammalian gut can significantly change their hosts’ amino acid and glucose metabolism, acting almost like an extra liver, according to a new preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.