Donald Nyangahu, PhD
Assistant Professor
Dr. Nyangahu’s research is focused on understanding the impact of the maternal and infant gut microbiota on immune development in infants. This includes investigating how alterations in maternal or infant intestinal communities may impact infant vaccine responses and immunity to pathogens as well as associated mechanisms. Infants born to mothers with HIV, even when HIV uninfected themselves display enhanced susceptibility to infectious diseases. Dr. Nyangahu is interested in unraveling novel mechanisms for this phenomenon. To address these questions, Dr. Nyangahu performs translational work conducting research in human infants and validating findings using conventional and germ-free mouse models. Furthermore, Dr. Nyangahu is interested in understanding the role of gut microbiota in driving growth phenotypes both in HIV exposed infants and in malnourished infants with or without diarrhea. To this end, he is collaborating with various UW investigators working in the field of childhood malnutrition and infant immunity in HIV-exposed infants in Kenya and South Africa.