Dr. Alexander Khoruts is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota in the Division of Gastroenterology. He is a member of the UMN Center for Immunology and Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology (MICaB) Graduate Program. He did his post-doctoral work with Dr. Marc Jenkins working on tracking antigen-specific CD4 T cells in vivo. The first phase of his independent research career was focused on fundamental CD4 T cell biology, specifically induction of regulatory CD4 T cells and T cell homeostasis. However, over the last 4 years the research focus has shifted toward translational topics involving gut microbiota as part of a collaborative effort with Dr. Michael Sadowsky at the UMN BioTechnology institute. Their group was the first to demonstrate engraftment of donor microbial communities into recipients in patients suffering from recurrent C. difficile infection syndrome. Furthermore, they have standardized preparation of fecal microbiota, which is now used in clinical practice for these patients. The team anticipates testing of this preparation in multi-center clinical trials and continues to work on next-generation microbiota therapeutics development.