62968-Needham, Brittany

Brittany D. Needham, PhD

Assistant Professor of Anatomy, Cell Biology & Physiology

Investigator, Stark Neurosciences Research Institute

Email
needham@iu.edu
Address
NB 300B
320 West 15th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202
PubMed:
Pubmed Logo

Bio

Brittany Needham, PhD, joined Stark Neurosciences Research Institute and the Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology at Indiana University School of Medicine in 2022. Prior to this, she studied as a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech. She graduated from BYU with a B.S. in Molecular Biology, followed by a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology, with a focus on Microbiology and Biochemistry, at UT Austin. 

Manipulating microbial communities and their byproducts is a rich and tractable opportunity for therapeutics. Dr. Needham first became interested in bacterial-host interactions as a graduate researcher studying the evolutionary strategies employed by bacterial pathogens to subvert mammalian immune detection. This work led her to appreciate the extreme range of potential host outcomes upon subtle structural variation of bacterial small molecules. As a postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Needham shifted her study of bacterial byproducts into commensal gut microbial molecules that influence neurodevelopment. The laboratory gained insight on the complexities of the molecular signatures that an altered gut microbiota imparts on its host. Her current work focuses on moving beyond associations of phenotypes in the gut and brain and into concrete causal effects that can be leveraged to understand host phenotypes.

Learn more about active research in the Needham Lab

Key Publications

Boktor J, Adame MD, Rose DR, Schumann CM, Murray KD, Bauman MD, Careaga M, Mazmanian SK, Ashwood P, Needham BD. Global Metabolic Profiles in a Non-human Primate model of Maternal Immune Activation: implications for neurodevelopmental disorders. Molecular Psychiatry. (In press 2022).

Needham BD, Funabashi M, Adame MD, Wang Z, Boktor JC, Haney J, Wu WL, Ladinsky MS, Rabut C, Hwang S, Guo Y, Zhu Q, Griffiths JA, Knight R, Shapiro MG, Bjorkman PJ, Geschwind DH, Holschneider DP, Fischbach MA, Mazmanian SK. A gut bacterial metabolite modulates brain activity and anxiety-like behavior in mice. Nature. (2022).

Needham BD, Adame MD, Serena G, Rose DR, Preston GM, Conrad MC, Campbell AS, Donabedian DH, Fasano A, Ashwood P, Mazmanian SK. Plasma and Fecal Metabolites in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Bio. Psychiatry. (2020).

Campbell AS*, Needham BD*, Meyer CR*, Tan J, Conrad M, Preston GM, Donabadian DH, Bolognani F, Rao S, Heussler H, Griffith R, Guastella A, Mazmanian SK. Open-label clinical trial targeting gut-derived metabolites shows safety and improved behaviors in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Nat. Medicine. (2022). *co-first authors.

Research Labs

Faculty research at IU School of Medicine is transforming health. Details about the medical research being conducted in faculty labs throughout IU School of Medicine are available in the Research section of this site.