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Biologist Karen Guillemin is an internationally recognized academic expert in microbiology and cell and development biology and host-microbe systems, and is developing new models to define host-microbe interactions in development and disease. She examines how hosts and their associated microbial communities shape each other, with the goal of understanding the principles by which complex host-microbe systems function and to learn how they can be manipulated to promote the health of human systems. Guillemin pioneered the use of zebrafish to study host-microbe interactions, including the influence of the gut microbiome on development, metabolism, and immunity.

Recent Media:
How a common stomach bug causes cancer (The Atlantic, Oct. 19, 2023)
Study shows how the gut’s nervous system affects microbes (Around the O, Feb. 14, 2022)
Biologist Karen Guillemin named as a fellow in the AAAS (Around the O, Nov. 30, 2020)
Tiny bacteria impact our health in big ways (The Washington Post, Sept. 22, 2020)
UO biologist Karen Guillemin named to national academy (Around the O, April 24, 2020)
Beneficial Microbe Hunter (Oregon Quarterly, April 14, 2020)
Local researcher from U of O is at the forefront of cancer research (KVAL News, June 25, 2019)
Everything Worth Knowing About ... Microbiomes (Discover Magazine, June 1, 2016)
Exploring the microbiome (eew) (Jefferson Public Radio, March 28, 2016)
You are your microbes - Jessica Green and Karen Guillemin (TED-Ed, Jan. 7, 2013)