My name is Abigail Asangba and I am a PhD student in Biological Anthropology working in the Stumpf lab. Factors such as diet, host phylogeny, host genetics, digestive physiology, environment, captivity, social interactions, race/ethnicity, pregnancy, disease, female promiscuity and mating group size have been shown to influence and/or predict the composition of the primate microbiome leading to variation both within and between individuals. Depending on the body site and/or host species, these factors may play either major or minor roles in shaping the microbial community composition of individuals. I am therefore interested in better understanding of how these factors structure the microbiome of both human and non-human primates not only within specific host species and body sites but also between host species and across multiple body sites.
