William Henry Fitzbutler Collegiate Professor
University of Michigan
Dr. Young is the William Henry Fitzbutler Collegiate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine/Infectious Diseases Division and the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Michigan Medical School. He received his undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985 and received his M.D. and his Ph.D. in Microbiology & Immunology from Stanford University 1992. He completed his clinical training in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He was previously on the faculty at Michigan State University prior to joining the University of Michigan in 2007. Dr. Young has a long-standing interest in understanding the pathogenesis of bacterial infections of the gastrointestinal tract and the role of the normal microbiota in human health and disease. As part of the NIH Human Microbiome Project, Dr. Young led a team that studied the role of the microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease. Current research in the Young Lab includes a “team science” effort to understand the pathogenesis Clostridium difficile infection by an integrated approach that combines clinical research, bacterial genomics, microbial ecology and immunology/host response projects. He is also leading a group of investigators that is developing the use of stem cell-derived intestinal organoids as a novel alternative model system for the study of enteric disease agents.