Emily Gentry

Emily Gentry is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on uncovering biochemical 'dark matter' through synthesis-based reverse metabolomics, mass spectrometry, and microbiome analysis to discover novel small molecules relevant to human health. She leads the Gentry Lab, which integrates organic synthesis and data science for biomarker and therapeutic discovery.

Education:

• B.S. in Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2013)
• Ph.D. in Chemistry, Princeton University (2018)
• Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California San Diego (2018–2022)

Research Interests: Her work spans metabolomics, chemical biology, and microbiome studies. Key areas include:

• Structural elucidation of unknown metabolites
• Microbiome-driven health and disease mechanisms
• Bile acid metabolism and its clinical implications
• Development of mass spectrometry tools for microbial metabolomics

Publications: Recent work highlights microbiome-bile acid interactions in disease, novel metabolite discovery, and synthetic methods for natural product synthesis. Representative themes include microbial bile acid modification, spatial metabolomics in plants, and tools for taxonomic metabolite analysis.

Awards:

• Pickering Award for Excellence in Teaching, Princeton University (2014)

Lab & Collaborations: The Gentry Lab emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches, collaborating on projects involving marine symbiosis, osteoarthritis biomarkers, and antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Ongoing efforts include developing synthetic libraries for metabolite screening and non-invasive drug detection via skin sampling.