Dr. Eric Martens is a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. Martens obtained his B.A. (1997) from Washington University in St. Louis and his Ph.D. (2005) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Martens began investigating the mechanisms through which human gut bacteria digest diet- and host derived polysaccharides during his postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Jeffrey Gordon at Washington University School of Medicine. He continued to pursue this work at the University of Michigan Medical School in 2009 with a focus on members of the Bacteroidetes, one of only a few numerically dominant phyla of human gut bacteria, which are particularly adept at degrading diet- and host-derived polysaccharides. Current projects in the Martens laboratory are aimed at understanding the role of commensal gut bacteria in triggering inflammatory bowel disease, the dependency of inflammatory outcomes on the amount and variety of dietary fiber, and the mechanisms through which bacterial mucin-degrading enzymes digest the mucosal barrier and promote disease. Additional projects in his lab are focused on lateral gene transfer between bacteria in environments like the ocean and those in the gut, bacteriophage interactions with gut bacteria and the immune system, and cultivation and characterization of the unstudied majority of human gut symbionts.