Futurity's article on our research describing how Parkinson's Disease may originate in the gut was one of the Top 10 Stories of the Year!

Our discoveries about Parkinson's disease and the gut microbiome were featured on Futurity. Check out the article here.

Thrilled to be awarded an NSF CAREER grant to support our research on lignin digestion by bacteria.

Honored to be supported by RSCA to work with Stephanie Cologna's lab and Faranak Fattahi's lab to study how α-synuclein aggregates form in the enteric nervous system

Congratulations to  graduate student Kylie Uyeda for being awarded an Honorable Mention for her application to the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program!

Bess Lab celebrates its first student advancing to PhD candidacy! Congratulations, Barry!

Cancerworld reported on our findings that gut bacteria a key piece of the puzzle in therapy with tamoxifen for people with breast cancer. Check out the press release here!

Delighted to be awarded an NIH R01 from NINDS to support our research on chemical factors that control the gut microbiome's role in Parkinson's disease.

The Chao Family Com- prehensive Cancer Center is supporting the Bess, Jang, and Whiteson Labs to use the gut microbiome to predict effectiveness of anti-cancer drugs.

Check out our Article in J. Appl. Microbiol. on an a way that gut bacteria can synthesize dopamine.

Congratulations to  graduate student Zane Long for being awarded an Honorable Mention  for his application to the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program!

Bess Lab awarded UC Irvine Hellman Fellowship!

Our findings that gut bacteria control the blood concentration of anti-breast cancer drug tamoxifen is published in mBio. Check out the press release and Commentary!

Undergrad researcher Dylan Thai awarded SoCal Undergrad Research Symposium Outstanding Poster Award for his work to inhibit α-synuclein aggregation!

Thanks to support from the ACS TheoryLab Collaborative Grant, the Bess and Jang Labs are mapping the gut microbiome's role in fighting breast cancer.

Check out our pre-print on bioRxiv showing how gut bacteria convert dopamine, iron, and α-synuclein into a toxic trio that causes α-synuclein aggregation and neurodegeneration

Congratulations to 3rd-year graduate student Barry Rich for receiving the prestigious ARCS Scholar Award.

Professor Bess named a Scialog fellow by Research Corp.

CBS News Radio highlighted our research about Parkinson's disease. Listen here!

We're using electro-chemistry to  enable rapid screening of inhibitors of α-synuclein aggregation. Read all about it in ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

Professor Bess interviewed by the podcast ChemTalk! Listen to the conversation about the chemistry of the gut microbiome here.

Check out our Commentary in mSystems about how C. elegans can be used to dissect the gut–grain axis.

Honored to be supported by the UC Cancer Research Coordinating Committee for our research on the gut microbiome's role in breast cancer therapy.

Honored to be supported by the American Cancer Society and UCI for our work on estrogen and the gut microbiome.

Live Science reports highlights our research in "E. coli in the gut may fuel a 'chain reaction' leading to Parkinson's, early study suggests." Read the article here.

Our contribution to the first molecular-level mechanism connecting gut bacteria to intestinal α-synuclein aggregation is published in ACS Chemical Biology.

Excited to work with Aida Ebrahimi's lab to study the electro-chemistry of gut bacteria's role in α-synuclein aggregation. Thanks to RSCA for the support!

Congratulations to  Kylie Uyeda and Zane Long, the newest PhD candidates in the Bess Lab!

Delighted to be supported by the Global Probiotics Council to study the chemical reactions that gut bacteria perform when they degrade fiber.