Biography:
Maximilian is currently completing his undergraduate Bachelor’s degree in Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder. He works in the Alderete Diabetes and Obesity (ADOR) Laboratory at UC Boulder, where he studies environmental impacts on the microbiome and subsequent impacts on human health and physiology. He grew up in Lakewood, Colorado where he attended Bear Creek High School. He has an interest in developmental psychiatry and hopes to have a career in medicine. When not in school he enjoys sports such as basketball, boxing and snowboarding, as well as reading fantasy novels and playing guitar.
Research:
"The Impact of Air Pollutants on the Composition of the Gut Microbiome and Health Outcomes in Adolescents from Southern California"
Environmental exposures have been found to impact the gut microbiome, both in human and animals. The gut microbiome helps to facilitate metabolic and immune processes. This project determines the specific impacts of air pollutants on the gut microbiome of adolescents in southern California. In order to determine these impacts multivariate analyses were conducted using nonparametric tests (Adonis), as well as multivariate analyses corrected for multiple testing. These analyses displayed that ozone and NO2 were associated with the relative abundance of gut bacteria, and ozone was associated with the amount of variation in the gut microbial community as well as several gene pathways. These finding suggests that environmental exposure have the potential to alter the gut microbiome and impact human health and disease.
Research Faculty Mentor
Dr. Tanya Alderete, Associate professor
Integrative Physiology