The global hunger crisis affects more than 8% of the world’s population, hitting hardest in developing nations, according to a 2025 United Nations report.
Bineyam Taye, associate professor of biology and global public and environmental health, and his student Angie Zhu ’26 conducted a study examining how household food insecurity influences the gut microbiome composition of Ethiopian schoolchildren. It was supported by a grant from the Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute and conducted in spring and fall 2025; their findings were published in the online journal Nutrients last February.
Many previous studies have discussed the long-term, often intergenerational impact food insecurity has on human health using demographic or economic indicators. However, limited data are available examining food insecurity through the lens of the gut microbiome, particularly in non- European populations. Taye and Zhu took a biological approach to better understand the gut microbiome structure of Ethiopian schoolchildren. The team collected fecal samples, extracted and sequenced microbial DNA, and analyzed the resulting profiles to identify which microbes were most prevalent among food-insecure children.
Zhu is an applied math major with minors in computer science and biology; she conducted this work in Taye’s global health epidemiology laboratory and has since been accepted to the PhD program at Tufts University, beginning this fall.
She led the computational analysis by processing raw sequencing data, identifying patterns in microbial composition, and producing publication-quality figures and figure legends. She also led all coding and data analysis, and worked alongside Taye throughout the manuscript writing process, including drafting and editing the literature review.
“In microbiome studies, we can perform all kinds of data analysis and obtain huge piles of figures and results,” Zhu says. “The challenging part then becomes digging through all of the data analysis to extract the interesting results to interpret and shape a cohesive story.”
The research revealed that household food insecurity is associated with a distinct and predictable gut microbiome composition. Limited food variety, consumption of disliked food (potentially through emotion and stress-related physiological responses), and reduced meal size emerged as factors tied to microbiome shifts. Additionally, Taye and Zhu identified the genus Sutterella as a potential biomarker for food insecurity.
Looking ahead, this research opens the door for a multidimensional understanding of food insecurity. Further studies could examine additional risk factors and diagnostic indicators, including a deeper investigation into Sutterella.
“In the future,” Taye says, “the composition of the gut microbiome, along with social and economic development indicators, may provide new ways to better understand the hunger crisis.”