Hi! My name is Phillip Brooks and I am a Postdoctoral Scholar at UC Davis in the Lab for data Intensive Biology with Dr. C. Titus Brown. I earned my Ph.D. in Comparative Medicine and Integrative Biology (CMIB) and Environmental Toxicology from Michigan State University in August of 2016. My research focused on uncovering the role of the microbiota in the manifestation of enteric and autoimmune disease resulting from Campylobacter jejuni infection. C. jejuni is a leading cause of bacterial diarrheal illness worldwide and is frequently associated with autoimmune diseases including Guillain-Barré Syndrome. We found that dysbiosis increased susceptibility to C. jejuni resulting in severe inflammation and elicited cross-reactive antibody responses in a mouse model.  

Currently, my research focus is metagenomics; both environmental and host-associated. During my Ph.D. I developed a strong foundation in molecular techniques and paired those skills with bioinformatic analysis to address questions about microbiota associated diseases. Currently, I’m developing software for confident, reproducible, and scalable analysis of metagenomic datasets as part of the dahak metagenomics project. This work will enable me to answer biological questions with enormous datasets, using reproducible methods, and state-of-the-art software.

I’m committed to teaching and outreach with an emphasis on reaching members of underrepresented groups. As a proponent of open science, I develop software in an open fashion using GitHub and frequently make my code and analysis results available in real time and prior to publication. I’m happy to collaborate, so please contact me at ptbrooks@ucdavis.edu.