Welcome to the Thaiss lab!

We are a team of biologists, physicians, and computer scientists who jointly tackle the mysteries of human disease.

Research Focus

Body-brain communication

We investigate the core principles of bidirectional communication between the body and the brain, with a particular focus on interactions between the immune, metabolic, and nervous systems in physiology and disease.

Environmental and lifestyle impacts on disease

We aim to decipher the mechanistic basis of how environmental and lifestyle factors, such as diet, exercise, sleep, stress, infections, xenobiotics, temperature, social interactions, and technology interact with the human body.

The biology of aging

We explore new elements of the biology of aging, and how they influence an individual's propensity for the development of multifactorial diseases, such as neurodegeneration, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and chronic inflammatory disease.

Recent Publications

Intestinal interoceptive dysfunction drives age-associated cognitive decline

Timothy O. Cox, Ashwarya S. Devason, Alan de Araujo, Sydney Mason, Madhav Subramanian, Andrea F. Salvador, Hélène C. Descamps, Junwon Kim, Yixuan Zhu, Lev Litichevskiy, Sunhee Jung, Wonsuk Song, Adrián Cortés-Martín, Nathan T. Henderson, Kuei-Pin Huang, Thao Nguyen, Wisath Sae-Lee, Iboro C. Umana, Maria Sacta, Ryan J. Rahman, Stephen Wisser, J. Andrew D. Nelson, Ilona Golynker, Alana M. McSween, Eric F. Hohmann, Shaan Patel, Anna L. Bub, Clara Soekler, Niklas Blank, Kevt'her Hoxha, Lavinia Boccia, Andrea C. Wong, Klaas Bahnsen, Jihee Kim, Natalie Biderman, Dina Abbasian, Clarissa Shoffler, Christopher Petucci, Fiona E. McAllister, Amber L. Alhadeff, Marc V. Fuccillo, Colin Hill, Cholsoon Jang, J. Nicholas Betley, Guillaume de Lartigue, Virginia Y.-M. Lee, Maayan Levy, Christoph A. Thaiss.

Nature • March 2026

Serotonin reduction in post-acute sequelae of viral infection

Andrea C. Wong, Ashwarya S. Devason, Iboro C. Umana, Timothy O. Cox, Lenka Dohnalová, Lev Litichevskiy, Jonathan Perla, Patrick Lundgren, Zienab Etwebi, Luke T. Izzo, Jihee Kim, Monika Tetlak, Hélène C. Descamps, Simone L. Park, Stephen Wisser, Aaron D. McKnight, Ryan D. Pardy, Junwon Kim, Niklas Blank, Shaan Patel, Katharina Thum, Sydney Mason, Jean-Christophe Beltra, Michaël F. Michieletto, Shin Foong Ngiow, Brittany M. Miller, Megan J. Liou, Bhoomi Madhu, Oxana Dmitrieva-Posocco, Alex S. Huber, Peter Hewins, Christopher Petucci, Candice P. Chu, Gwen Baraniecki-Zwil, Leila B. Giron, Amy E. Baxter, Allison R. Greenplate, Charlotte Kearns, Kathleen Montone, Leslie A. Litzky, Michael Feldman, Jorge Henao-Mejia, Boris Striepen, Holly Ramage, Kellie A. Jurado, Kathryn E. Wellen, Una O'Doherty, Mohamed Abdel-Mohsen, Alan L. Landay, Ali Keshavarzian, Timothy J. Henrich, Steven G. Deeks, Michael J. Peluso, Nuala J. Meyer, E. John Wherry, Benjamin A. Abramoff, Sara Cherry, Christoph A. Thaiss, Maayan Levy.

Cell • October 2023

The enteric nervous system relays psychological stress to intestinal inflammation

Kai Markus Schneider, Niklas Blank, Yelina Alvarez, Katharina Thum, Patrick Lundgren, Lev Litichevskiy, Madeleine Sleeman, Klaas Bahnsen, Jihee Kim, Simon Kardo, Shaan Patel, Lenka Dohnalová, Giulia T. Uhr, Hélène C. Descamps, Susanna Kircher, Alana M. McSween, Ashkan Rezazadeh Ardabili, Kelsey M. Nemec, Monica T. Jimenez, Lila G. Glotfelty, Joshua D. Eisenberg, Emma E. Furth, Jorge Henao-Mejia, F. Chris Bennett, Marie J. Pierik, Mariëlle Romberg-Camps, Zlatan Mujagic, Marco Prinz, Carolin V. Schneider, E. John Wherry, Meenakshi Bewtra, Robert O. Heuckeroth, Maayan Levy, Christoph A. Thaiss.

Cell • June 2023

A microbiome-dependent gut–brain pathway regulates motivation for exercise

Lenka Dohnalová, Patrick Lundgren, Jamie R. E. Carty, Nitsan Goldstein, Sebastian L. Wenski, Pakjira Nanudorn, Sirinthra Thiengmag, Kuei-Pin Huang, Lev Litichevskiy, Hélène C. Descamps, Karthikeyani Chellappa, Ana Glassman, Susanne Kessler, Jihee Kim, Timothy O. Cox, Oxana Dmitrieva-Posocco, Andrea C. Wong, Erik L. Allman, Soumita Ghosh, Nitika Sharma, Kasturi Sengupta, Belinda Cornes, Nitai Dean, Gary A. Churchill, Tejvir S. Khurana, Mark A. Sellmyer, Garret A. FitzGerald, Andrew D. Patterson, Joseph A. Baur, Amber L. Alhadeff, Eric J. N. Helfrich, Maayan Levy, J. Nicholas Betley, Christoph A. Thaiss.

Nature • December 2022

All Publications

Team

Core Investigator

Christoph Thaiss

Christoph A. Thaiss is an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Stanford University. His lab studies how interactions between environment, body, and brain impact physiology and disease over the lifespan. Christoph received his undergraduate training from the University of Bonn, Yale University, ETH Zurich, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Following his Ph.D. studies at the Weizmann Institute of Science, he joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. Among the recognitions he has received for his work are an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, an NIDDK Catalyst Award, a Pew Biomedical Scholars Award, the Science & SciLifeLab Grand Prize for a Young Scientist, the Agilent Early Career Professor Award, a McKnight Brain Research Foundation Innovator Award, and a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease Award.

Current Members

Lab Admin