Margaret Ann Hilliard
PhD Candidate
B.A. in Biology & Biochemistry, Marlboro College. 2018
Research Interests
I'm broadly interested in the evolution of inter-individual differences in human milk composition. Also, how maternal genetics and environmental exposures influence the development of the infant gut microbiome. I use molecular techniques to investigate carbohydrate scavenging in the infant gut commensal Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis. I also use simplified in vitro models of the distal gut microbiome to study how host-indigestible carbohydrates modulate fecal communities.
Publications
Dedon, L. R., Hilliard, M. A., Rani, A., Daza-Merchan, Z. T., Story, G., Briere, E., & Sela, D. A. (2023). Fucosylated Human Milk Oligosaccharides Drive Structure-Specific Syntrophy between Bifidobacterium infantis and Eubacterium hallii within a Modeled Infant Gut Microbiome. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 67(11), 2200851. https://doi.org/10.1002/mnfr.202200851
Davis, E. C., Castagna, V. P., Sela, D. A., Hilliard, M. A., Lindberg, S., Mantis, N. J., ... & Järvinen, K. M. (2022). Gut microbiome and breast-feeding: Implications for early immune development. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 150(3), 523-534. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2022.07.014
Coker, M. O., Laue, H. E., Hoen, A. G., Hilliard, M., Dade, E., Li, Z., ... & Madan, J. C. (2021). Infant feeding alters the longitudinal impact of birth mode on the development of the gut microbiota in the first year of life. Frontiers in microbiology, 12, 524. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.642197
Dallas D. C., Sah B. N. P., Beverly R. L., You X., Hilliard M. A., Sela D. A. & Donovan, S. M. (2021). Chapter 11—Nonprotein nitrogen and protein-derived peptides in human milk. In M. K. Mcguire & D. l O’connor (Eds.), Human Milk (pp. 299–336). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815350-5.00011-5
Antosca, K., Hoen, A. G., Palys, T., Hilliard, M., Morrison, H. G., Coker, M., Madan, J & Karagas, M. R. (2020). Reliability of stool microbiome methods for DNA yields and sequencing among infants and young children. MicrobiologyOpen, 9(5), e1018. https://doi.org/10.1002/mbo3.1018
