Vincent B. Young Presents 2025 Richard J. Meyer Lecture
Dr. Young discussed how microbial communities interact with pathogens and hosts to influence health and disease, with a focus on Clostridioides difficile infection
Dr. Vincent B. Young, MD, PhD, from the University of Michigan Medical School, delivered the 2025 Richard J. Meyer Lecture on Nov. 11 titled “Infectious Diseases: Complex Interplay Between Host, Pathogen and Microbiota.” Dr. Young is the William Henry Fitzbutler Collegiate Professor in Internal Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology.
LCID member Dr. Rasika Harshey introduced the lecture with a remembrance of Dr. Meyer. She discussed his research on the mobilization of broad host range conjugative plasmids that carry multiple drug resistance. Dr. Harshey added that Dr. Meyer also published a lab textbook in microbiology entitled, “Challenges of the Unseen World” which is used by several institutions today. She concluded by saying that “There was a quiet modesty about Richard, and I can just see him squirming at even this brief eulogy. We miss him a lot.”
Clostridioides difficile infection and team science
In his lecture, Dr. Young discussed how microbial communities interact with pathogens and hosts to influence health and disease, with a focus on Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI). Throughout the lecture, he emphasized the importance of team science in his work with interdisciplinary researchers in collaborations that combined clinical, engineering, and computational expertise.
C. difficile is a spore-forming bacterium that causes antibiotic-associated colitis. Antibiotic use is the primary factor in CDI, disrupting the normal gut microbiota that normally protect against C. difficile infection. While CDI-specific antibiotic treatment resolves most cases, about 20% recur due to incomplete microbiota recovery. Dr. Young’s Young’s team is researching the underlying mechanism of resistance to C. difficile colonization and they have shown that the types of bile acids in the intestine play a key role. A healthy microbiome appears to keep these bile acids in balance to help prevent colonization of C. difficile.
Young and collaborators at Massachusetts General Hospital are using machine learning and electronic health records to develop better predictive tools and risk factors for C. difficile infection and colitis. They have identified inflammatory markers linked to disease severity and validated these findings in mouse models.
Dr. Young’s group is currently pursuing NIH-funded projects to identify small molecules and metabolites that influence pathogen dynamics, including interactions between C. difficile and organisms like Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci (VRE). Using bioreactors, co-culture systems, and mouse models, they are developing novel therapies beyond antibiotics to treat infections.
