About Melissa Agnello

Melissa Agnello is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research focuses on the bacteria and other resident microbes that live in the mouth, how they cause diseases such as caries, and how manipulating them can lead to new treatments and/or preventions.

Targeted antimicrobials in the oral microbiome

7 Dec 2016

by Melissa Agnello

Most mucosal surfaces of the human body contain an extremely complex ecosystem of microbial organisms. These resident microbes exist in a delicate balance with each other and the human host that is dictated by the specific local environmental factors of each host body site. In health, the many different species that make up the microbiota exist in homeostasis with the host immune system. A dysbiosis of the microbiota shifts the community, which may lead to disease.