Exploring the Gut-Brain Connection Through Diet. Welcome to the Solch-Ottaiano Lab! We investigate how what we eat affects our brain health through the trillions of microbes in our gastrointestinal tract. We bridge nutrition, neuroscience, and translational models to uncover how dietary patterns—like the Mediterranean and Western diets—impact brain health across the lifespan. This is done through modulation or loss of the gut microbiota using techniques such as fecal microbiota transplantations (we like to call it a "whole gut probiotic") and antibiotics, respectively. Other lab research interests include risk factors associated with unhealthy brain aging including cardiometabolic health.