Andrew D. Patterson
About Me
Dr. Patterson is the H. Thomas and Dorothy Willits Hallowell Chair in Agricultural Sciences, Professor of Molecular Toxicology, and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA and is the Scientific Director of Metabolomics. He holds joint appointments in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He received his BS in Microbiology from the Pennsylvania State University and his PhD from the Graduate Partnerships Program between the National Cancer Institute and George Washington University. Dr. Patterson did his postdoctoral fellowship in the Lab of Metabolism under Dr. Frank J. Gonzalez.
Program or Departmental Affiliations
| BMMB Graduate Program | Computational, Bioinformatics, and Statistics | Bioinformatics and Genomics | Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences |
Center Affiliations
Research Summary
The Patterson lab investigates how gut microbiota, diet, and environmental chemicals jointly shape host metabolism, with particular attention to the small molecules that mediate communication between microbes and host tissues. Bile acids are the lab's primary model system for this work, illustrating how microbial enzymatic activity transforms a host-derived compound into a diverse family of signaling molecules that act on host receptors throughout the body. The lab applies this same framework to a broader range of dietary and xenobiotic compounds, tracing how microbial metabolism alters their structure and biological activity, using NMR and mass spectrometry based metabolomics, genomics, and both conventional and gnotobiotic mouse models to connect microbial chemistry to host physiology and disease outcomes.
Dr. Patterson teaches VBSC/BMB 433: Molecular and Cellular Toxicology. The course covers advanced principles and mechanisms of toxicology. The course is offered each spring.