​Holly L. Lutz, PhD
Asst. Project Scientist
Department of Pediatrics | Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California San Diego

I am a scientist in the Gilbert Lab and a research associate with the Integrative Research Center at the Field Museum of Natural History. My current research focuses on field-based approaches to the study of microbial symbionts in a diverse range of hosts, from East African bats and birds to cephalopods. Using a combination of metagenomics, machine learning, and network theory, I am exploring connections between microbes and host phylogeny, ecology, and eukaryotic parasitism. I am also involved in experimental approaches to understanding the role of bacterial symbionts in human diseases including Alzheimers, depression, and anxiety. Continuing interests and collaborations involve the evolution and ecology of malarial parasites and related haemosporidians, and biotic inventories of threatened ecosystems in the Afrotropics.
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Press

• ​"The secret to flight in birds and bats is not just wings, it's guts" (Quirks & Quarks, CBC 2020)
• "The birds and the bats: Evolving to fly may have had big effect on gut microbiome" (SciGlow. 2020)
• ​"Gut Bacteria: How bats 'shift the paradigm'" (MedicalNewsToday, 2019)
• "Bat Microbiome is Unique Among Mammals" (Microbial Minutes, American Society for Microbiology, 2019)
• "The cuttlefish may be flashy, but its microbiome is super simple" (www.sciencedaily.com, 2019)

• ​"Scientists probe new ways to control malaria" ​(Science news for students, 2018)

• ​"Study Reveals Evolution of Malaria" (www.Phys.org, 2016) ​
• "The Malaria Family Tree Leads Back to Birds" (Cornell Lab of Ornithology, www.AllAboutBirds.org, 2016)

• ​"Study of African Birds Reveals Hotbed of Malaria Parasite Diversity" (DrexelNOW, 2015)

google scholar

orcid.org/0000-0001-6454-809X