Investigating the effect of a mouse model of environmental enteric dysfunction on the gut microbiome

Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) is a disease that primarily effects children in low to middle income countries that experience malnutrition and higher rates of enteric infections. EED leads to reduced oral vaccine efficacy; however, the reason for this remains unknown. This project uses a mouse model of EED, whereby mice are fed a low protein and low fat diet while orally infected with E coli. The goal of this study was to determine if diet and infection lead to altered microbial communities in the intestines of mice on this protocol as well as an altered immune response.