Mahesh Desai

Dr. Mahesh S. Desai earned his BSc and MSc (2005) from the University of Pune, India, and a PhD (2008) from the International Max Planck Research School, Marburg, Germany. He completed postdoctoral work at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology (Marburg), the University of Göttingen, the University of Luxembourg, and the University of Michigan Medical School with Prof. Eric C. Martens, studying how dietary fiber shapes mucin-degrading gut bacteria. Since 2015, he has led the Nutrition, Microbiome and Immunity group at the Luxembourg Institute of Health (https://eim.lih.lu). His lab investigates microbiome-mediated mechanisms that connect diet and disease via interactions with the colonic mucus barrier, focusing on the health impacts of fiber-deprived microbiomes. Through dietary-fiber intervention cohorts, the team aims to identify microbial biomarkers that can be targeted through dietary therapeutics, ultimately engineering the gut microbiome to strengthen the mucosal barrier, reduce pathogen susceptibility, and mitigate disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease, food allergy, and multiple sclerosis.