Feb 25, 2020
Hein Min Tun, PhD, is a public health veterinarian and
researcher who is currently leading research efforts at the
University of Hong Kong School of Public Health.
He discusses the details of his work, including the following:
After obtaining his PhD at the University of Hong Kong, Dr. Hein
Min Tun conducted post-doctoral research on the microbiome and
resistome in food animals, humans, and the environment at the Gut
Microbiome Laboratory of the University of Manitoba. Following
that, he joined the team at SyMBIOTA, where he studied gut
microbiota during infancy.
His latest work has two main focuses: understanding how the gut microbiome is related to the colonization of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and what early microbiome development might reveal about the characterization of “healthy” microbiomes. He is the head of a team of researchers at the University of Hong Kong School of Public Health who aim to investigate these topics.
With the use of several statistical and machine learning
approaches, Dr. Tun is analyzing population data on different
cohorts of infants in order to tease out what factors are at play
in the development of early microbiome trajectories and disease
outcomes. For example, how does the health of the mother affect the
health of the baby? How does the gut microbiome differ between a
baby born vaginally and by cesarean section?
Does exposure to chemicals or toxins in the environment influence
the development of the microbiome? These are just a few of the
questions Dr. Tun and his team are exploring. On today’s podcast,
he shares what they’ve discovered thus far, which areas need the
most attention, and what’s on the horizon for the field of
microbiome research in general.
Learn more and view Dr. Tun’s publications at https://sph.hku.hk/en/about-us/faculty-and-staff/academic-related-staff/tun,-hein-min.