In this Q&A, you’ll meet Jiaxian Shen, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow studying the role of the gut microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) under the mentorship of Long Nguyen, MD, MS, Andrew Chan, MD, MPH, and Curtis Huttenhower.
When she is not navigating the complexities of the microbial world, Jiaxian enjoys experimenting with new recipes, watching films, and making a consistent effort to exercise more and wake up earlier—some days more successfully than others.
Meet Mass General's POD People!
This year’s Celebration of Science at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) started with a poster session that featured 250+ posters from research staff and trainees. From this impressive group, MGH judges selected 24 finalists to give a brief oral presentation on their paper. From those finalists, 12 Poster of Distinction winners were selected.
Each of the winners received $1,000 that they can use to support travel to a scientific conference or meeting. In this series, you’ll meet the 2025 Poster of Distinction winners (who we have affectionately nicknamed the POD People) and learn more about them and their research.
Can you give us a quick elevator pitch for your poster?
While prior studies have uncovered the critical role of gut dysbiosis (an imbalance of microorganisms in the gut) in inflammatory bowel disease, most have focused on its bacterial determinants, leaving the viral ecology understudied.
I was inspired to investigate this overlooked area, especially with the state-of-the-art viral profiling tool recently developed in our group.
Understanding the gut virome (the population of viruses in the gut) and bacteria-virus interactions may reveal missing links in IBD pathogenesis and help identify novel biomarkers or therapeutic targets.
What inspired this research?
We conducted the largest gut virome analysis in inflammatory bowel disease to date, profiling over 2,500 metagenomes across eight international cohorts using a state-of-the-art bioinformatic tool.
Our findings reveal that the gut viral community, like its bacterial counterpart, is a key component of the microbiome in IBD.
Notably, novel viruses—particularly bacteriophage—may represent a critical yet underexplored factor. These expanded insights hold promise for uncovering new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
If someone’s new to this topic, what’s one key takeaway they should walk away with?
The gut microbiome includes not only bacteria, but also viruses—many of which remain poorly understood. In inflammatory bowel disease, the viral community appears to be disrupted, potentially playing a role in disease processes.
By studying both bacteria and viruses together, we can gain a more comprehensive view of the gut ecosystem and uncover new insights into IBD pathogenesis and treatment.
Was there a moment when things didn't go as planned? How did you navigate it?
One major challenge was harmonizing data from multiple cohorts, each with distinct study designs and metadata formats, and ensuring the results were coherent and minimally biased.
We addressed this through careful preprocessing, close collaboration with data providers, and the implementation of a novel statistical framework tailored to heterogeneity in microbiome studies.
This experience reinforced the importance of combining methodological innovation with community collaboration to tackle complex, large-scale research questions.
What's a fun or surprising fact about your research not included in your poster?
Although the reference database of our viral profiling tool is dominated by eukaryotic viruses, and we often think of them as more directly relevant to human health, most of the viruses we found in the IBD gut were actually bacteriophage.
We don’t yet know why, but we are excited to dig deeper.
If you could invite one scientist—living or historical—to view your poster, who would it be and why?
I would invite Rosalind Franklin.
Her pioneering work in uncovering the structure of DNA reminds us how much remains hidden in the world of molecular biology and how often overlooked contributions lead to transformative discoveries.
Her legacy continues to inspire us as we take on the challenge of exploring viral “dark matter” in the gut microbiome and other scientific unknowns.
What's your go-to order at a coffee shop?
Be honest—how many tabs do you have open (on average) per day?
Be honest—how many tabs do you have open (on average) per day?
15 (I like to check and close inactive tabs from time to time.)
What's your go-to karaoke song?
会呼吸的痛 (by Fish Leong)
What's your most used emoji?
(This gets used all the time in Slack
.)
Research at Mass General Brigham
At Mass General Brigham, research isn’t just about discovery—it’s about transforming patient care worldwide.
With a community of more than 3,700 Principal Investigators and 16,000 scientists, we are pioneering discoveries in fields ranging from AI and gene therapy to cancer, neuroscience, and global health.
Through collaboration, innovation, and a relentless pursuit of knowledge, we turn groundbreaking ideas into real-world impact. Follow us for the latest research insights, clinical advancements, and stories of discovery from across Mass General Brigham.
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