Her lab studies abundant bacterial members of the human intestinal microbiota. For more than two decades, her lab has been uncovering unique genetic, phenotypic and ecological properties of symbiotic gut Bacteroidales. Many of these discoveries were the first examples of such biology in bacteria or challenged classic paradigms of biological properties of bacteria. These studies have also helped uncover properties that contribute to the survival and abundance of these bacteria in the human gut. Over the last several years, her lab has studied molecular mechanisms used by abundant gut bacteria to interact with each other, both cooperatively and competitively, and the implication of these interactions on the composition of gut microbial communities.