Elizabeth Holzhausen, PhD

Elizabeth Holzhausen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Michigan State University. Her research is focused on using cutting-edge single and multi-omics approaches to understand how early life exposures impact the developing gut microbiome and drive downstream health outcomes.

PRIMARY RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Examining the role of vertical microbiome transmission in child health. Mothers provide infants with many of their initial gut microbes, and the gut microbiome is thought to influence health outcomes – particularly during early life. Therefore, Dr. Holzhausen is examining the role of the maternal gut microbiome and vertical transmission in the development of the infant gut microbiome and child health.
  
  
• Exploring how environmental exposures impact vertical microbiome transmission and early microbiome development. Early life represents a critical window for microbiome development that may have lasting health implications. Dr. Holzhausen is investigating how prenatal and early life exposures to wildfire smoke, air pollution, and other environmental exposures are linked with gut microbiome development.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Holzhausen earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where her doctoral research examined how physical activity and sedentary behavior relate to the gut microbiome in healthy adults. She completed postdoctoral training at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she expanded this work to the early-life microbiome and developed expertise in integrative multi-omics analysis. Prior to joining Michigan State University, Dr. Holzhausen served as an Assistant Research Professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, building a research program focused on environmental and early life exposures, the gut microbiome, and human health.