Exploring the gut microbial action of metformin: targeting the gut microbiota to treat metabolic disease

Filipe is a biochemist with a background in exploring the biological mechanisms underlying molecular stress protection and ageing. Recently he has pioneered the use of the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans to study how drug-microbiota interactions affect host metabolism and ageing. This work has led to a focus on host-microbiota interactions and metabolic disorders. Using a combination of metagenomics and gnotobiotics, his research seeks to gain insight into the gut microbial action of drugs in higher organisms and to develop strategies for targeting the gut microbiota to treat host metabolic disease.