Ashley Franks group

From soil to human health, there is an urgent need to predict how changes to microbial community structure impact community function. We pioneer the use of functional traits to study microbial communities and how they impact environment functions. Traits go beyond looking at ‘who’ is present in a community, to understanding ‘how is the community behaving’, leading to identifiable opportunities for ‘engineering’ these communities for beneficial outcomes in health, disease and environmental research.

The human microbiota contains trillions of microbial cells with most present in the gut. Branched chain fatty acids (BCFA) in breast milk influence normal human microbiota development, infant gut epithelial cells, and the immune system. Preterm infants and those mainly fed on formula often lack BCFAs. We isolate bacteria producing BCFAs to study their impact on human microbiota and gut health. Our research may lead to new infant formulas for optimal
infant gut and microbiota development.

The human microbiome, performs vital health functions that influence immunity, synthesis of essential molecules, and even our mood. Interactions between the microbiome, genetics and physiology are complex. We collaborate with clinicians, neurobiologists and physiologists to study the microbiome's role in Parkinson’s disease, Autism and other disorders.

Agricultural and natural ecosystems rely on soil microorganisms to drive key ecosystem functions. For example, microorganisms are gatekeepers of the carbon cycle, both creating and removing carbon from soil systems. We study how the ecology of a microbial community governs these key
ecosystem services, the wider implication for ecosystem function and interactions with climate. The answers to these questions have far reaching implications for the role of soil health in ecosystem restoration and sustainable farming and climate change mitigation.

The developing field of electromicrobiology investigates bacteria with novel electrical properties including the ability to transfer electrons between each other and onto stable surfaces such as electrodes. We use microbial fuel cells (MFCs) and plant MFCs to study these electroactive microbes and key roles they play in corrosion in bioremediation processes.

We study microbial survival in extremeenvironments to understand the role of microbes in biogeochemical cycling, primary production and as mediators and mitigators of climate change.