معرفی
Melissa Manus, PhD, MSc, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), housed within the College of Liberal and Fine Arts. She additionally holds affiliations with UTSA’s Institute for Health Disparities Research and the School of Data Science, and leads the Manus Lab which investigates how early-life environments shape infant health via the microbiome.
Education:
- PhD in Anthropology, Northwestern University (2022)
- MSc in Global Health, Duke University (2016)
- BS in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University (2013)
Research Focus: Dr. Manus integrates anthropology, community ecology, evolutionary medicine, and bioinformatics to understand how physical, social, and nutritional environments in early life influence the developing microbiome—an environmentally sensitive system that trains immunity and affects lifelong health. Her field projects span Madagascar, Mexico, the United States, Pakistan, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, and the Philippines. A parallel aim is to democratize microbiome science by creating field-friendly collection protocols and open-source analytic/visualization tools for anthropologists and human biologists.
Publication Trends: Across 15 recent works (2022-2025) her scholarship clusters into three thematic arcs: (1) methodological guidance for microbiome field studies in humans and non-human primates; (2) ecological and evolutionary analyses linking social environments—particularly household composition and alloparental care—to infant skin and gut microbiota; and (3) large-scale consortia efforts (e.g., IMiC) elucidating how human milk microbiomes mediate the impacts of maternal nutrition, breastfeeding, and socioeconomic status on infant growth and disease risk.
Scientific Awards & Recognition: While no formal awards are explicitly listed, Dr. Manus’s leadership of multi-country consortia and continuous peer-reviewed output underscore emerging recognition in microbiome anthropology.
Advising & Funding: The Manus Lab is actively recruiting PhD and MA students as well as a lab manager. Grant sources are not detailed in the supplied text, but ongoing international projects imply active extramural funding.
Laboratory & Affiliations:
- Manus Lab – Department of Anthropology, UTSA
- Affiliate – Institute for Health Disparities Research, UTSA
- Affiliate – School of Data Science, UTSA
