Cultivating Health: Leveraging Microbial Ecology for Women’s Health Innovation

Indriati Hood-Pishchany, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she leads a research program investigating the ecological and mechanistic principles that shape the vaginal microbiome. Her laboratory focuses on how nutrient resource competition, microbial traits, and gene regulatory networks drive community assembly, stability, and function. Using molecular microbiology, microbial genetics, multi-omics, and advanced model systems, including bioreactor-based Experimental Vaginal Ecosystems (EVE), her group aims to define rules of microbial interaction and translate these insights into next-generation approaches for women’s health.