Aaron Wright, PhD

Education

BS, George Fox University

PhD, University of Texas

Major Areas of Research

Microbiome sciences, chemical biology, functional omics

Biography

Aaron T. Wright is a graduate of George Fox University (BS) and the University of Texas at Austin (PhD).  At UT, he trained with Dr. Eric Anslyn in chemical sensing, focusing on the development of peptide-based differential sensors for molecules such as hormones and heparin.  He then trained as a postdoctoral fellow in chemical biology with Dr. Benjamin Cravatt at The Scripps Research Institute. At Scripps he worked on the development and application of activity-based probes for the cytochrome P450 enzyme family. He moved on to a senior scientist position at the US DOE Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where he built a chemical biology and functional omics research program focused on microbiology and became the director of the Biological Systems Science Group.  Simultaneously, he was a research professor in the Gene & Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering.  His research has been funded by numerous federal agencies and private industry.  His research in the gut microbiome also stimulated the formation of Enzymetrics Biosciences in Philadelphia, PA.  He has mentored >70 students, interns, and postdoctoral fellows.  His hobbies include skiing, boating, mountain biking, reading, landscaping, and his kids’ activities.  He and his wife, Janet, have twin teenage sons and a teenage daughter.

Biography

The Wright group investigates host-microbiome-environment interactions with functional resolution at the molecular scale.  We seek to move the understanding of microbiome activities from largely inference-based to function-based by overcoming the limitations of the current genome-to-phenotype paradigm. The Wright group performs interdisciplinary research in microbiology, chemical biology, systems biology, and functional -omics to study protein function and protein-small molecule interactions in host-associated microbes and microbiomes, and directly in host organisms. Towards mechanistic understanding of host-microbe-environment interaction mechanisms, the Wright group focuses on:

• identifying and validating the mechanisms driving microbial functions, interactions and spatial dynamics, and response to perturbation in microbiomes
• revealing the biochemical mechanisms for drug/xenobiotic metabolism in mammalian tissues and the gut microbiome, and to understand how these metabolic activities change as a result of mammalian development and chemical exposures
• characterizing how irritable bowel disease and related pathologies impact carbohydrate metabolism by the gut microbiome
• developing novel chemical biology, systems biology, and omics methodologies to enable discoveries in biology at the molecular scale with functional resolution