Video and artwork by Leah Bury
The Devlin lab at Harvard Medical School uses strategies from chemical biology to study the human microbiome. Our goal is to control the chemistry of human-associated bacteria in order to understand how the microbiome affects human health and disease. The lab leverages expertise from different fields, including synthetic organic chemistry, molecular biology, microbiology, analytical chemistry, and bioinformatics. Learn about our research.
The Devlin lab would be a good fit for students and postdocs with either (1) an organic or analytical chemistry background interested in using chemistry to study biological problems or (2) a microbiology, biochemistry, or cell biology background interested in studying the human microbiome. If you are interested, get in touch.
In the Devlin lab, we strive to create an environment that establishes a sense of belonging for each member of our group, both in lab and as part of the broader Harvard community. Collaboration, open communication, and trust are the cornerstones of our group. We welcome and support anyone regardless of race, disability, gender identification, sexual orientation, age, financial background, or religion.
Recent Updates:
- November 2025: The Devlin Lab is seeking a postdoctoral fellow to join our team. Preferred start date between now and Spring 2026. If you are interested, get in touch.
- October 2025: Our paper “Cultured bacteria isolated from primary sclerosing cholangitis patient bile induce inflammation and cell death” with Chelsea Powell, Megan McCurry, and other co-authors appeared in mSphere.
- July 2025: We said goodbye to Chelsea Powell, who is starting as a Higher Scientific Officer at the Institute for Cancer Research in the UK.
- June 2025: We said goodbye to Liz Jones, who is starting as a Research Analyst at Drug Hunter.
- October 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Gabriel D’Agostino who successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis! Gabriel is starting as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. Bonnie Bassler at Princeton.
- May 2024: Our paper “Gut bacteria convert glucocorticoids into progestins in the presence of hydrogen gas” with Megan McCurry, Gabriel D’Agostino, Jasmine Walsh, and other co-authors appeared in Cell. Check out the HMS News and Research article for a quick summary!
- May 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Wei Li who successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis! Wei is starting as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
- December 2023: We said goodbye to Fei Ye, who is starting as a Research Scientist at Origin Materials in Sacramento, CA!
- August 2023: We said goodbye to Snehal Chaudhari, who is starting her own lab as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison!
- May 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Megan McCurry who successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis! Megan is starting as a Scientist at Holobiome.
The Devlin lab is on Twitter!
Check us out here.
Posts from @DevlinLab
The Devlin lab is seeking a new postdoctoral researcher to join our group (start date between now and Spring 2026). Chemists and biologists interested in how gut bacteria affect human health are encouraged to apply. More information on our lab website https://devlin.hms.harvard.edu/contact/.
We just published a paper in @mSphereJ about bacterial contributions to the progression of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), a chronic liver disease whose only current treatment is liver transplant. Check it out below!
Check out our new review article in @NatImmunol about the role of gut microbial metabolites in the T cell lifecycle!
We are super excited that our review on the sulfated metabolome is online in @nchembio today! Led by Gabriel and Snehal in the lab. Check it out!
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41589-023-01526-9
Snehal initiated the collaboration between @DevlinLab and @BWHSurgMetab , organized my interview two years ago, and has been an excellent collaborator for the past two years. Best wishes on her new journey!
Earlier this week we said ~see you later~ to one of the OG Devlin lab postdocs, Snehal Chaudhari, as she embarks on her journey as an Assistant Professor at @UWBiochem! We are so proud of her but we’ll miss her big time 😭
4
On Monday July 24, the Keio University Human Biology-Microbiome-Quantum Research Center (WPI-Bio2Q) held its Gut Microbiome Seminar.
“Causal links between human gut bacterial metabolites and host functions”
Sloan Devlin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor,
Harvard Medical School, USA
Long overdue, but our first grad student @microbe_megan just defended her thesis in May!🤩 She also just gave an AMAZING talk at #bbm2023 @BostonBacteria on her thesis work. 🎉 What an exciting couple of months!
2
Oh btw I defended my dissertation last week? Here’s me being a silly goose trying to open the bottle of champagne
We’re at the #MITmicrobiome Symposium today! Two of us are presenting posters today: Gabriel (poster 14) and Megan @microbe_megan (poster 13). Come check them out!
Save the date! Sloan Devlin (@DevlinLab) at @harvardmed is #ASBMBDeuel’s Journal of Clinical Investigation (@jclinicalinvest) Lecturer. Register for the conference to attend her talk, “Bacterial modification of bile acids alters host physiology,” on 3/ 8: https://www.asbmb.org/meetings-events/deuel.
Check out our fearless leader on the @MicrobiGals podcast this week!!!!
🚨New Episode!🚨
Join us with Dr. Devlin of Harvard Medical School ( @DevlinLab) as we talk about the gut microbiome research in her lab.
https://hi.switchy.io/AKRQ
Excited to be part of this ACS Chem Biol virtual event next Tuesday highlighting young #chembio investigators — registration is free! http://go.acs.org/28s @FFriscourt @IfthihaMohideen @DevlinLab @HuangMia @WangXiaoLab @EllenSletten @Linlab_ZJU & Samira Musah & Kabirul Islam
Gut bacterial modifications characterized so far involve hydrolytic & reductive pathways. @DevlinLab & colleagues have discovered a mechanism by which gut bacteria sulfonate steroidal metabolites that can modulate immune cell trafficking @NatureMicrobiol
We’re excited to share our latest paper in @ScienceAdvances led by Snehal in our lab and Darrik Li in Raymond Chung’s lab @MGHLiverCenter! Check it out!
Today’s #shoutout to #womenInSTEM goes to Lina Yao @DevlinLab for her @NatureMicrobiol paper on a biosynthetic pathway for selective sulfonation of steroidal metabolites by human #gut #bacteria.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-022-01176-y