Current Projects in the Valm Lab

The architecture of dental plaque biofilms

With our collaborators, we are interested in mapping the spatial distribution of 15 or more taxa of microbes in intact, tooth-associated biofilms from healthy volunteers, patients with periodontal disease and animal models.

In vitro Oral biofilm systems

We are developing multispecies in vitro oral biofilm model systems for the controlled testing of specific hypotheses regarding oral biofilm structure.  We recruit healthy volunteers to donate dental plaque innocula which are then co-cultured in the lab.

SPATIAL STRUCTURE AND ASSEMBLY OF THE GUT MICROBIOME

We use fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to map the dynamic spatial distribution of microbes within the gut of conventionally raised and gnotobiotic zebrafish colonized with cultivable isolates of the normal microbiota to understand the role the microbiota play in innate immunnity and systemic health.

Microbial spectral imaging technology development

We actively develop new labeling, imaging and computational analysis technologies to image and distinguish tens to hundreds of different species of microbes simultaneously.