Prof. Ruth Ley, PhD
Contact
Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen
Microbiome Science
Max-Planck-Ring 5
72076 Tübingen
ruth.ley
@tuebingen.mpg.de
Tel.:+49 7071 601-449
Research Interest
Ruth Ley's research interests include the ecology and evolution of the human gut flora and its effects on our health. Of particular interest are the strategies of bacteria to adapt to the human host. Her research group conducts population-level studies to investigate links between the human genotype and the gut microbiome. Further research focuses on lipids in the host-microbiome symbiosis, the immune responses induced by the microbiome and the development of genetic systems for microbes that are currently difficult to study. Ruth Ley's research has shown, among other things, that the production of sphingolipids by a prominent bacterial species in the gut can influence the lipid content in other organs, potentially affecting the metabolic state of the host, and that the innate immune system recognises a component of the bacterial flagellum via the Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5), thereby influencing the composition of the gut microbiome and the health of the host.
About Ruth Ley
Ruth Ley studied Integrative Biology at the University of California (Berkeley) and received her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Colorado (Boulder) in 2001. With a NASA and National Research Council Astrobiology Fellowship, she continued her research as a post-doctoral fellow with Dr Norman Pace. From 2004, she conducted research on the human microbiome with Jeffrey Gordon at the Washington School of Medicine (St. Louis). 2008-2018 Ruth Ley went to Cornell University (Ithaca), initially as Assistant Professor. She was Adjunct Professor there from 2011-2014 and Associate Professor in the Departments of Microbiology and Molecular Biology and Genetics from 2013-2018. Ruth Ley has been Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen since 2016. In 2019, she became Deputy Spokesperson of the Cluster of Excellence CMFI.
Prizes and Awards
Ruth Ley's work has been awarded numerous prizes, including the Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine (2018), the Otto Bayer Prize (2020) and the Charles Donovan Microbiome Award (2023).
She has been an elected member of the Leopoldina since 2020.
Selected Publications
Enav H, Paz I, Ley RE. (2024) Strain tracking in complex microbiomes using synteny analysis reveals per-species modes of evolution. Nat Biotechnol. doi: 10.1038/s41587-024-02276-2.
Clasen SJ, Bell MEW, Borbón A, Lee D, Henseler ZM, De La Cuesta-Zuluaga J, Parys K, Zou J, Wang Y, Altmannova V, Youngblut ND, Weir JR, Gewirtz AT, Belkhadir Y, Ley RE. (2023) Silent recognition of flagellins from human gut commensal bacteria by Toll-like receptor 5. Sci. Immunol. 8(79). doi: 10.1126/sciimmunol.abq7001.
Suzuki TA, Fitzstevens JL, Schmidt VT, Enav H, Huus KE, Mbong Ngwese M, Grießhammer A, Pfleiderer A, Adegbite BR, Zinsou JF, Esen M, Velavan TP, Adegnika AA, Song LH, Spector TD, Muehlbauer AL, Marchi N, Kang H, Maier L, Blekhman R, Ségurel L, Ko G, Youngblut ND, Kremsner P, Ley RE. (2022) Codiversification of gut microbiota with humans. Science 377(6612): 1328–1332. doi: 10.1126/science.abm7759.
Heaver SL, Le HH, et int, Campopiano DJ, Ley RE. (2022) Characterization of inositol lipid metabolism in gut-associated Bacteroidetes. Nat Microbiol. 7:986–1000. doi: 10.1038/s41564-022-01152-6.
Suzuki TA, Ley RE. (2022) Microbes set the (woodrat) menu: Host genetics control diet-specific gut microbes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 119:e2120125118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2120125118.
Youngblut ND, Reischer GH, et int, Farnleitner AH, Ley RE. (2021) Vertebrate host phylogeny influences gut archaeal diversity. Nat Microbiol. 6:1443-1454. doi: 10.1038/s41564-021-00980-2.
Poole AC, Goodrich JK, et int, Booth JG, Ley RE. (2019) Human salivary amylase gene copy number impacts oral and gut microbiomes. Cell Host Microbe. 25:553–564.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2019.03.001.
Goodrich JK, Davenport ER, Waters JL, Clark AG, Ley RE. (2016) Cross-species comparisons of host genetic associations with the microbiome. Science. 352:532–535. doi: 10.1126/science.aad9379.
Goodrich JK, Waters JL, et int, Clark AG, Ley RE. (2014) Human genetics shape the gut microbiome. Cell. 159:789–799. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2014.09.053.
Koren O, Goodrich JK, et int, Salminen S, Ley RE. (2012) Host Remodeling of the gut microbiome and metabolic changes during pregnancy. Cell. 150:470–480. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.07.008.
You can find a full list of publications here
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