Erika Cyphert, PhD

Uncovering how reproductive aging influences host-microbe metabolic interactions

A normal part of aging is entering menopause, an understudied aspect of life that can make up one third of the lifespan. Healthcare providers currently determine vaginal health using information mostly gathered from women who have not yet gone through menopause. As a result, it can be difficult to tell whether a postmenopausal woman has a vaginal health problem or whether her body’s normal, healthy changes are simply different because of aging. Dr. Cyphert’s lab will study the types of microbes found in the vagina after menopause and how they function. The goal is to establish clearer guidelines for what a healthy or unhealthy vaginal microbiome looks like in postmenopausal women. This could help doctors provide more accurate diagnoses and better treatments.

Dr. Cyphert’s research brings together a multi-disciplinary team of bioengineers, clinicians, and physician scientists to develop novel imaging and microbial sequencing modalities to understand how microbial structure and function changes with menopause. This is particularly impactful because it uses a systems-level approach combining cutting- edge imaging with omics datasets (metabolomics, metagenomics) to identify microbes and metabolites that can be used in future studies to make mechanistic determinations of vaginal health, based on menopause status.