The Chang Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology and the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology that focuses on understanding how gut microbial small molecule metabolites impact the host during infection and inflammatory diseases. We employ biological and chemical approaches including the tools of chemoproteomics, chemical biology, chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular and cellular microbiology and immunology to elucidate key communication pathways between the gut microbiota and the host immune system. Our ultimate goal is to understand how immune homeostasis and host defense are regulated, as such discoveries would have broad implications for the development of therapeutics and prophylactics for many inflammatory diseases.