Biography
Dr. Angela Poole is an assistant professor of Molecular Nutrition in the Division of Nutritional Sciences. The overarching goal of her research group is to modulate the interactions between host factors, dietary intake, and oral and gut microbes, to prevent and manage diseases. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in engineering and applied science from Caltech. Afterwards, she was a research associate in a nutrition lab that studied the genetics underlying macronutrient preference using a mouse model. She earned her PhD in genome sciences from the University of Washington in Seattle in the laboratory of Dr. Leo Pallanck. Afterwards, she was a postdoctoral research associate in the laboratory of Dr. Ruth Ley. Finally, she joined the faculty of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University with a burning interest in precision nutrition.
Research interests
Precision nutrition refers to the quest to determine dietary recommendations for each individual to help them live their best (healthiest) life. Over the years, nutritional scientists have observed that people react differently to the same food. For example, some people’s blood glucose will rise higher if they eat ice cream than if they eat bananas. Surprisingly, for other people, that may not be the case. Which category do you fit into? How do we determine that??? The reasons for this variability are believed to include genetics and gut microbiota. Understanding all of the factors that affect this variability will enable us to make personalized recommendations about what each person should eat to avoid developing conditions such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.
Our goal is to elucidate the interactions between host genetics, dietary intake, and gut microbes in order to benefit host health. Our current projects focus on (1) optimizing dietary fiber intake to prevent diabetes and hyperlipidemia and (2) identifying factors underlying pathogenic biofilm formation in the mouth. Our research is interdisciplinary; we combine knowledge from genetics, nutrition, physiology, microbiology, and computational biology. Our findings could help to develop a systems biology approach to precision nutrition to assist in treating metabolic disorders or decreasing disease risk.
NS 4200: Diet and the microbiome
Superdock DK, Zhang W, Poole AC. Processing and Storage Methods Affect Oral and Gut Microbiome Composition. bioRxiv preprint. DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.13.544865. 2023 June 14.
Devarakonda SLS*, Superdock DK*, Ren J, Johnson LM; Loinard-González AP; Poole AC. Gut microbial features and dietary fiber intake predict gut microbiota response to resistant starch supplementation. medRxiv preprint. DOI: 10.1101/2023.03.24.23287665. 2023 March 29.
Bibliography on PubMed:
Superdock DK, Zhang W, Poole AC. Processing and Storage Methods Affect Oral and Gut Microbiome Composition. Frontiers in Microbiology – Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems. 2023 Oct 3. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1253570.
Poole AC. In the grand scheme of things: identifying reproducible microbial signatures in dietary intervention studies. Cell Host & Microbe. 2019 August 14 ; 26(2).
Poole AC, Goodrich JK, Youngblut ND, Ruaud A, Luque GG, Sutter JL, Waters JL, Shi Q, Mohamed E-H, Johnson LM, Bar HY, Huson DH, Booth JG, Ley RE. Human salivary amylase gene copy number impacts oral and gut microbiomes. Cell Host & Microbe. 2019 April 10; 25(4).
Poole AC*, Pischel L*, Ley C, Suh G, Goodrich JK, Haggerty TD, Ley RE, Parsonnet J. Crossover Control Study of the Effect of Personal Care Products Containing Triclosan on the Microbiome. mSphere, American Society for Microbiology. 2016 May 18; 1(3). PMID: 27303746.
Jackson MA, Goodrich JK, Maxan M-E, Freedberg DE, Abrams JA, Poole AC, Sutter JL, Welter D, Ley RE, Bell JT, Spector TD, Steves CJ. Proton pump inhibitors alter the composition of the gut microbiota. Gut. 2016 May; 65(5): 749-56. PMID: 26719299.
Friedman ES, McPhillips LE, Werner JJ, Poole AC, Ley RE, Walter MT, Angenent L. Methane emission in a specific riparian-zone sediment decreased with bioelectrochemical manipulation and corresponded to the microbial community dynamics. Front. Microbiol. 2016 Jan 11; 6: 1523. PMID: 26793170.
Sun S, Lourie R, Cohen SB, Ji Y, Goodrich JK, Poole AC, Ley RE, Denkers EY, McGuckin MA, Long Q, Duhamel GE, Simpson KW, Qi L. Epithelial Sel1L is required for the maintenance of intestinal homeostasis. Molecular Biology of the Cell. 2015 Dec 2; Epub. PMID: 26631554.
Chassaing B, Koren O, Goodrich JK, Poole AC, Srinivasan S, Ley RE, Gewirtz AT. Dietary emulsifiers impact the mouse gut microbiota promoting colitis and metabolic syndrome. Nature. 2015 Mar 5; 519(7541): 92-6. PMID: 25731162.
Panke-Buisse K, Poole AC, Goodrich JK, Ley RE, Kao-Kniffin J. Selection on soil microbiomes reveals reproducible impacts on plant function. ISME Journal. 2015 Mar 17; 9(4): 980-89. PMID: 25350154.
Goodrich JK, Waters JL, Poole AC, Sutter JL, Koren O, Blekhman R, Beaumont M, Van Treuren W, Knight R, Bell JT, Spector TD, Clark AG, Ley RE. Human genetics shape the gut microbiome. Cell. 2014 Nov 6; 159(4): 789-99. PMID: 25417156.
Goodrich JK, Di Rienzi SC, Poole AC, Koren O, Walters WA, Caporaso JG, Knight R, Ley RE. Conducting a microbiome study. Cell. 2014 Jul 17; 158(2): 250-62. PMID: 25036628.
Ji Y, Sun S, Goodrich JK, Kim H, Poole AC, Duhamel GE, Ley RE, Qi L. Diet-induced alterations in gut microflora contribute to lethal pulmonary damage in TLR2/TLR4-deficient mice. Cell Reports. 2014 Jul 10; 8(1): 137-49. PMID: 24953658.
Burman JL, Yu S, Poole AC, Decal RB, Pallanck LJ. Analysis of neural subtypes reveals selective mitochondrial dysfunction in dopaminergic neurons from parkin mutants. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Jun 26; 109(26): 10438-43. PMID: 22691499.
Poole AC*, Thomas RE*, Yu S, Vincow ES, Pallanck LJ. The mitochondrial fusion-promoting factor Mitofusin is a substrate of the PINK1/Parkin pathway. PLoS One. 2010 Apr 7. PMID: 20383334.
Poole AC*, Thomas RE*, Andrews LA, McBride HM, Whitworth AJ, Pallanck LJ. The PINK1/Parkin pathway regulates mitochondrial morphology. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Feb 5; 105(5): 1638-43. PMID: 18230723.
Kumar KG, Poole AC, York B, Volaufova J, Zuberi A, Richards BK. Quantitative trait loci for carbohydrate and total energy intake on mouse chromosome 17: congenic strain confirmation and candidate gene analyses (Glo1, Glp1r). Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2006 Jan; 292(1): R207-16. PMID: 16946080.
Smith Richards BK, Belton BN, Poole AC, Mancuso JJ, Churchill GA, Li R, Volaufova J, Zuberi A, York B. QTL analysis of self-selected macronutrient diet intake: fat, carbohydrate, and total kilocalories. Physiol Genomics. 2002 Dec 3; 11(3): 205-17. PMID: 12388789.
* co-first author
Professional Appointments and Memberships
• USDA NIFA grant review panel, study section on Food and Human Health,
November 2019
• Associate Editor on the Editorial Board of Microbiome in Health and Disease, a
specialty section within Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
• Member, Cornell University Center for Vertebrate Genomics
• Faculty Fellow, Cornell University Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future
• Cornell Institute of Host-Microbe Interactions and Disease
• American Diabetes Association
Cornell University Graduate Field Memberships
• Nutritional Sciences
• Microbiology
Pre-Health Bridge Program PostBacc committee, Division of Nutritional Sciences
Academic Affairs Committee, Graduate Field of Nutrition
1999, Bachelor of Science, Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
2010, Doctor of Philosophy, Genome Sciences, University of Washington
Post-Doctoral Research, Microbiology and Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University