Melissa Bailey

About

Melissa D. Bailey, OD, PhD, is a professor at The Ohio State University College of Optometry. Her research interests include soft contact lens fitting strategies, preventing adverse events associated with contact lens wear, and the lifelong development of the ciliary muscle. She is also a serial inventor with multiple U.S. and international patents. Dr. Bailey received her Doctor of Optometry and PhD in vision science from The Ohio State University. She was awarded the 2022 Innovator of the Year at OSU for her work in technology commercialization. Dr. Bailey enjoys teaching students about contact lenses within the optometry curriculum and also teaches graduate seminar courses.

Research topics

• Biology
• Medicine
• Internal medicine
• Immunology
• Bioinformatics
• Endocrinology
• Microbiology
• Political Science
• Genetics
• Ecology

Selected publications

• The human gut microbiome and health inequities

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021 · 167 citations

  Individuals who are minoritized as a result of race, sexual identity, gender, or socioeconomic status experience a higher prevalence of many diseases. Understanding the biological processes that cause and maintain these socially driven health inequities is essential for addressing them. The gut microbiome is strongly shaped by host environments and affects host metabolic, immune, and neuroendocrine functions, making it an important pathway by which differences in experiences caused by social, po…

  DOI

• Manipulations of the gut microbiome alter chemotherapy-induced inflammation and behavioral side effects in female mice

  Brain Behavior and Immunity · 2021 · 99 citations

  DOI

• Prenatal stress causes intrauterine inflammation and serotonergic dysfunction, and long-term behavioral deficits through microbe- and CCL2-dependent mechanisms

  Translational Psychiatry · 2020 · 93 citations

  and GF animals. Altogether, these findings suggest that a complex interaction between maternal microbes, inflammation, and serotonin metabolism regulates the emergence of behavioral abnormalities following PNS.

  DOI

• Psychological stress disrupts intestinal epithelial cell function and mucosal integrity through microbe and host-directed processes

  Gut Microbes · 2022 · 50 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  (ROS generating enzymes) strongly paralleled changes to microbiome composition and function, evidencing Str-mediated ROS production as a primary factor mediating gut-microbiota dysbiosis. In conclusion, a mouse model of social stress disrupts colonic epithelial and mucosal integrity, a response dependent on an intact microbiota and host stress signals. Together these preclinical findings may provide new insight into mechanisms of stress-associated bowel pathologies in humans.

  DOI

• Unique maternal immune and functional microbial profiles during prenatal stress

  Scientific Reports · 2020 · 45 citations

  Maternal stress during pregnancy is widespread and is associated with poor offspring outcomes, including long-term mental health issues. Prenatal stress-induced fetal neuroinflammation is thought to underlie aberrant neurodevelopment and to derive from a disruption in intrauterine immune homeostasis, though the exact origins are incompletely defined. We aimed to identify divergent immune and microbial metagenome profiles of stressed gestating mice that may trigger detrimental inflammatory signal…

  DOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant F31MH012458

  NIH · $61k

• Role of stress-induced reduction in lactobacillus reuteri on colonic inflammation

  NIH · $1.9M · 2012–2018

• Tunable Native Probiotic Formulations for the Treatment of NEC.

  NIH · $1.8M · 2017–2023

Frequent coauthors

• John F. Sheridan

  147 shared

• Jeffrey D. Galley

  The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

  134 shared

• Tamar Gur

  The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

  90 shared

• Amy R. Mackos

  The Ohio State University

  68 shared

• Brett R. Loman

  60 shared

• David A. Padgett

  55 shared

• Helen J. Chen

  The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

  53 shared

• Ross Maltz

  41 shared

Labs

• Melissa Bailey LabPI

Awards & honors

• 2022 Innovator of the Year at The Ohio State University