Dr. Bridget Chalifour is the Genomics Scientist at DMNS. She grew up in Orlando, Florida and developed a passion for ecology by exploring tide pools and salt marshes on the East Coast. She completed her BS in Environmental Science at the University of Florida in 2017 and earned her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2022. She is a microbial ecologist who studies environmental changes and their effects on microbiomes in both human and animal hosts. Her dissertation research used a combination of preserved museum specimens and wild-caught snails to understand how factors like life stage, time in preservation, human disturbance, and geographic location impact the diversity and composition of the gut microbiomes of Rocky Mountain snails. Her postdoctoral research studied relationships between environmental exposures like air pollution, PFAS levels, changes in weight, and feeding patterns, and 'omics measures, including metagenomic and metabolomic data in human populations. Now, Bridget conducts research leveraging ‘omics technology across human and non-human systems utilizing DMNS’ extensive collection of DNA, frozen tissues, and specimens.
Featured Publications
Chalifour, B., Holzhausen, E.A., Lim, J.J., Yeo, E.N., Shen, N., Jones, D.P., Peterson, B.S., Goran, M.I., Liang, D. and Alderete, T.L., 2023. The potential role of early life feeding patterns in shaping the infant fecal metabolome: implications for neurodevelopmental outcomes. NPJ metabolic health and disease, 1(1), p.2. DOI: 10.1038/s44324-023-00001-2
Chalifour, B.N., Trifonova, D.I., Holzhausen, E.A., Bailey, M.J., Schmidt, K.A., Babaei, M., Mokhtari, P., Goran, M.I. and Alderete, T.L., 2023. Characterizing alterations in the gut microbiota following postpartum weight change. Msystems, 8(6), pp.e00808-23. DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00808-23
Chalifour, B.N., Elder, L.E. and Li, J., 2023. Diversity of gut microbiome in Rocky Mountainsnail across its native range. Plos one, 18(11), p.e0290292. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290292
Chalifour, B.N., Elder, L.E. and Li, J., 2022. Gut microbiome of century-old snail specimens stable across time in preservation. Microbiome, 10(1), p.99. DOI: 10.1186/s40168-022-01286-z
Chalifour, B., Hoogveld, J.R., Derksen-Hooijberg, M., Harris, K.L., Urueña, J.M., Sawyer, W.G., van der Heide, T. and Angelini, C., 2019. Drought alters the spatial distribution, grazing patterns, and radula morphology of a fungal-farming salt marsh snail. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 620, pp.1-13. DOI: 10.3354/meps12976