Wendy Sarah Garrett is an American microbiologist who is the Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. She holds a joint position in the Departments of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Early life and education

Garrett was a medical student at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. She remained there for her doctoral research, where she studied the regulation of endocytosis in the development of dendritic cells. She was a Research Fellow the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and postdoctoral researcher at the

Harvard University Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consis ...

Research and career

Garrett investigates host-microbiota interactions in health and disease. She is interested in the interplay between the gastrointestinal immune system and the gut

microbiome A microbiome () is the community of microorganisms that can usually be found living together in any given habitat. It was defined more precisely in 1988 by Whipps ''et al.'' as "a characteristic microbial community occupying a reasonably well ...

, particularly in the context of

inflammatory bowel disease Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of inflammation, inflammatory conditions of the colon (anatomy), colon and small intestine, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis being the principal types. Crohn's disease affects the small intestine a ...

and

colorectal cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel m ...

. She has shown that the gut microbiota influence both innate and adaptive immune populations, contributing to immune homeostasis and disease. She identified specific microbial species, pathways, and metabolites that impact health and disease states. Garrett has investigated the microbes and immune cells that play a role in carcinogenesis and intestinal homeostasis. She has developed approaches that combine meta-

omics The branches of science known informally as omics are various disciplines in biology whose names end in the suffix '' -omics'', such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, metagenomics, phenomics and transcriptomics. Omics aims at the collect ...

, microbiology, cellular immunology, biochemistry, cell biology, and cancer biology. To uncover fundamental biological mechanisms and apply findings to precision medicine, Garrett combines mouse models, human specimens, and mammalian and bacterial cells, as well as ''

in vivo Studies that are ''in vivo'' (Latin for "within the living"; often not italicized in English) are those in which the effects of various biological entities are tested on whole, living organisms or cells, usually animals, including humans, and ...

'' and ''

in vitro ''In vitro'' (meaning in glass, or ''in the glass'') studies are performed with microorganisms, cells, or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. Colloquially called "test-tube experiments", these studies in biology an ...

'' model systems. Garrett has shown that ''

Fusobacterium nucleatum ''Fusobacterium nucleatum'' is a Gram negative, anaerobic oral bacterium, commensal to the human oral cavity, that plays a role in periodontal disease. This organism is commonly recovered from different monocultured microbial and mixed infection ...

'', a microbe of the mouth, is abundant in colon tumors. She believes that this could be an early indicator of carcinogenesis. In 2017, Garrett established a microbiome biobank at Harvard. The biobank is the most comprehensive collection of specimens in the world, using samples of people from the Nurses' Health Study and other long-term cohort studies. In 2020 she was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation, who awarded her the Marian W. Ropes, MD Award in 2023.

Selected publications

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References

{{Authority control Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Yale University alumni Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health faculty American microbiologists 21st-century American women scientists