Positions
- Assistant Professor
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Molecular Virology & Microbiology
Alkek Center for Metagenomics and Microbiome Research
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX US
- Faculty Member, Steering Committee and Curriculum Chair
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Immunology and Microbiology (IY) Graduate Program
Baylor College of Medicine
- Faculty Member
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Quantitative and Computational Biosciences
Baylor College of Medicine
- Faculty Member
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Development Disease Models and Therapeutics (DDMT) Program
Baylor College of Medicine
- Faculty Senator
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Baylor College of Medicine
- Faculty Member
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Genetics and Genomics Program
Baylor College of Medicine
Addresses
- BCM-Andersen Bldg. (Lab)
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Room: BCM-661E
Houston, TX 77030
United States
Phone: (713) 798-9156
- BCM-Andersen Bldg. (Office)
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Room: BCM-661E
Houston, TX 77030
United States
Phone: (713) 798-9110
Education
- PhD from Washington University in St. Louis
- Saint Louis, Missouri United States
- Molecular Microbiology and Genomics, Laboratory of Jeffrey Gordon
- Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Harvard Medical School / Massachusetts General Hospital
- Boston, Massachusetts United States
- Genetics, Metabolism and Small RNA Biology, Laboratory of Gary Ruvkun
Professional Interests
- Genetics and genomics of host-microbe interactions
- Microbiome programming of host physiology and development
- Invertebrate animal models of dysbiosis / IBD
- Intestinal parasite / helminth microbiome interactions
Professional Statement
POSITIONS AVAILABLE**: UNDERGRADUATE/SUMMER STUDENTS, POSTBAC, POSTDOCS.[ ** Email CV, Cover Letter, References to bucks [at] bcm [dot] edu ] Microbes are exquisite architects of both host physiology and the world around us. Despite their importance, we know very little about how our indigenous microbes (our 'microbiome') are established, managed and maintained. Thus, research in my lab aims to comprehensively identify the molecular pathways that govern microbial influence over host physiology. It has been difficult to dissect these pathways with traditional systems due to their complexity and the lack of high-throughput analysis tools. Thus, to accomplish this goal, we utilize both clinical microbiome studies and have developed a novel microbiome analysis system that uses the free-living nematode C. elegans. Using this high-throughput system, we have characterized the natural C. elegans microbiome and identified several highly conserved host and microbial pathways that govern their interactions. In addition, we translate these candidates into other model systems and clinical populations. Ultimately, we seek to identify conserved genetic circuits that can be used to manage influence of the microbiome on human health.
Websites
Selected Publications
- Liu Y, Samuel BS, Breen PC, Ruvkun G "Caenorhabditis elegans pathways that surveil and defend mitochondria." Nature. 2014; Pubmed PMID: 24695221
- Samuel BS, Rowedder H, Braendle C, Felix M-A*, Ruvkun G* "Caenorhabditis elegans responses to bacteria from its natural habitats." Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Jul 5; Pubmed PMID: 27317746
- Zhang F#, Berg M#, Dierking K, Félix MA, Shapira M*, Samuel BS*, Schulenburg H* "Caenorhabditis elegans as a Model for Microbiome Research." Frontiers Microbiol. 2017;
- Gregory KE*, Samuel BS*, Houghteling P, Shan G, Ausubel FM, Sadreyev RI, Walker WA "Influence of maternal breast milk ingestion on acquisition of the intestinal microbiome in preterm infants." Microbiome. 2016; Pubmed PMID: 28034306
- Gill SR, Pop M, Deboy RT, Eckburg PB, Turnbaugh PJ, Samuel BS, Gordon JI, Relman DA, Fraser-Liggett CM, Nelson KE. "Metagenomic analysis of the human distal gut microbiome." Science. 2006 Jun; Pubmed PMID: 16741115
- Fan Zhang 1, Jessica L Weckhorst 2, Adrien Assié 1, Ciara Hosea 3, Christopher A Ayoub 1, Anastasia S Khodakova 1, Mario Loeza Cabrera 3, Daniela Vidal Vilchis 1, Marie-Anne Félix 4, Buck S Samuel 5 "Natural genetic variation drives microbiome selection in the Caenorhabditis elegans gut." Current Biology. 2021 Jun 21; Pubmed PMID: 34048707
- Ivan N Chavez, Taylor M Brown, Adrien Assié, Astra S Bryant, Buck S Samuel, Elissa A Hallem "Skin-penetrating nematodes exhibit life-stage-specific interactions with host-associated and environmental bacteria." BMC Biology. 2021 Dec;
Memberships
- Genetics Society of America
- American Society for Microbiology
Funding
- Microbiome programming of host physiology - #DP2 DK116645 Grant funding from NIH New Innovator Award
- Microbes establish physiologic programs at birth and different microbes during these critical periods influences likelihood of leading a life of health or disease. Despite its importance to all our health, we know very little about the nature of these microbial programming events. We propose to leverage a simple animal system and new innovative methods to define the genetic landscape and response networks of microbial programming at the organismal level in order to identify targets for tailored interventions to support a lifelong healthy balance with our microbes.
- Genomic analyses of the natural microbiome of Caenorhabditis elegans Grant funding from Joint Genome Institute / Department of Energy
- Support for full genome sequencing of 92 bacterial isolates of C. elegans natural microbiome.
- Junior Faculty Seed Grant Grant funding from Baylor College of Medicine
- Development of a model system to dissect the molecular mechanisms of microbiome impact on infant growth trajectories.
- Development of high-throughput genetic strategies to dissect microbiome impact on host physiology (01/01/2018 - 12/31/2019) Grant funding from John S. Dunn Collaborative Research Award
- Collaboration with Joff Silberg and Grant Hughes to improve throughput of CRISPR targeting systems in multiple hosts.
- Impact of the gut microbiome on the integrative physiology of genetically diverse invertebrates (02/01/2022 - 01/30/2025) Grant funding from NASA/TIDES
- This work pioneers the use of genetically diverse hosts, newly built microbiomes, and innovative phenotyping tools that should break new ground in understanding host-microbiome interactions in space-flight. A rich repository of transcriptomic/sequencing data of microbiomes, invertebrates; tissue-level data of gut/muscle/nerve; and whole-animal functional imagery data will be available to the scientific community to generate new hypotheses on individual specific microbiome-driven response in space-flight. This flight project lays the ground work for studying the importance of the microbiome on the Moon enabling U.S. to lead in deep space exploration.
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