Rachel Carmody

I seek to understand how the human body acquires and utilizes energy, and how past changes in energy budget have shaped human evolution. Within the past decade, it has become clear that energy metabolism depends on complex interactions between diet, health, genetics, and the structure and function of the microbial communities living inside the human body. My work considers the human body as an ecosystem, integrating perspectives and experimental techniques from evolutionary biology, nutrition, physiology, microbiology, and metagenomics to pursue a richer understanding of energy exchange. Currently, my group is employing this ecosystem approach to probe the digestive capacities that are unique to humans, the conditions favoring mutualistic versus selfish human-microbial interactions, the modulation of maternal-offspring conflict over energy resources, and the caloric potential of non-caloric dietary components.