I am interested in the complex interactions between dietary intake, nutritional health and infectious diseases. At UVA, I supervise student-led clinical research studies on: 1) the early post-partum breast milk microbiome and the developing neonatal intestinal microbiome; and 2) the evaluation of methodologies to estimate infant breast milk volume consumption in a healthy community-based population. Internationally, I conduct research within multidisciplinary collaborations examining the role of breast milk immunology (The Gambia, Zambia) and maternal-infant nutrient supplementation (Tanzania) on early infancy health and infectious disease outcomes. Additionally, long-standing work in The Gambia on iron and infection has led to a current focus on identifying differences in pathogen iron-handling by Mycobacterium africanuum as a contributing factor to explain, in part, disease phenotype differences.