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Manal Alhawsawi, MS, PhD candidate

PhD candidate
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
savoy, Illinois, United States

Manal Alhawsawi is a third-year PhD candidate in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She holds a BS and an MS degree in Clinical Nutrition. Her research focuses on dietary and microbial manipulations in the human gut, with emphasis on how dietary fiber is sensed and metabolized by the gut microbiota, especially the phylum Bacteroidota.
Of significance to Manal's interest are the metabolites derived from microbial dietary fiber metabolism and their downstream effects on the host, both in good health and under disease conditions. She applies recombinant DNA technology, molecular biology, and biophysical approaches to gain mechanistic insights in her studies to identify biomarkers that enable personalized nutrition and microbiome-targeted recommendations or therapies. Recent notable contributions from her group's research include three publications in Nature Communications that elucidate the link between the human microbiota and both the lung and kidneys, hence the gut-lung and gut-kidney axes. These studies advance the understanding of how microbial communities and their metabolites may coordinate cross-organ communication, with implications for respiratory and renal health. Together, their studies and findings highlight microbiota-driven pathways that could yield biomarkers and therapeutic strategies targeting pulmonary and renal functions.

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