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Student
University of Manitoba
My name is Junfei Guo, a PhD candidate in department of Animal Science, Univesity of Manitoba. I got my bachelor and master degrees in Veterinary Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University. I came to University of Manitoba in 2015-2016 as a visiting student and participated in a dairy project from which I gained my interest in gut microbiome research. Therefore, I started my PhD program in Fall, 2017 working with Dr. Kees Plaizier and Dr Ehsan Khafipour to study the microbial ecology of the gastrointestinal tract in ruminant. The potential of Canadian dairy cows is among the highest in the world. To meet their production potential, cows are fed high-grain diets, which can differentially promote the proportion of members of microbial communities that makes up the rumen and hindgut. The preliminary results of my research indicated that high-grain diets further result in dysbiosis of the udder and vaginal tract microbiomes and that administration of yeast fermentation products can improve the preferred balance of microbial communities in those compartments. Understanding the mechanism of action of these products can help to optimize their dose in the diet. Therefore, I will focus on application of multi-omics technologies to monitor immunological responses of dairy cows, metatranscriptomics responses of the rumen, hindgut, and the udder microbiomes as well as metabolomics profile of the rumen and hindgut digesta to understand the mode of action of yeast fermentation products via understanding the interactions between host and microbial communities. Ultimately my aim is to optimize the administration dose of such products in order to improve the functional capacity of gut microorganisms, prevent from poor gut-health, and improve milk production efficiency, cow welfare and longevity.