Brantley Hall headshot
Contact Info
Office: 3126 Bioscience Research Bldg.
Phone: 301-405-7481
Human Flatus Atlas

Brantley Hall

Associate Professor

Graduate Program Affiliations

Research Interests

The Hall lab studies the human gut microbiome with the goal of identifying the bacterial genes underlying health-relevant functions of the gut microbiome.  

Education

  • Ph.D., Virginia Tech, 2016. Genetics, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
  • Postdoctoral Training, 2016-20, The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT

All Publications

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Latest Publications

Jiang AK,Arp G,Kato M,Brunner T,Grant MR,Clarke AM,Sidebottom AM,McMillin M,Lehmann CJ,Odenwald MA,Wolfe KS,Patel BK,Odenike O,Li Y,Light SH,Hall B,Jiang X
SpiE is a distinct gut microbial 4-cholesten-3-one 5β-reductase that acts with SpiR to convert cholesterol to coprostanol.
bioRxiv. 2026 Oct 8;:. pii: 2026.10.06.757028. doi: 10.64898/2026.10.06.757028. Epub 2026 Oct 8
Jiang AK,Grant MR,Arp G,Dufault-Thompson K,Clarke AM,Li Y,Lehman D,Jarmusch AK,Hall B,Jiang X
Discovery of BilV reveals a multienzymatic basis for bilirubin reduction across vertebrate gut microbiomes.
bioRxiv. 2026 Jun 2;:. pii: 2026.06.01.729425. doi: 10.64898/2026.06.01.729425. Epub 2026 Jun 2
Arp G,Levy S,Jiang AK,Dufault-Thompson K,Zhong A,Grant M,Li Y,Jiang X,Hall B
SpiR is a gut microbial enzyme that drives cholesterol conversion.
Nat Commun. 2026 Apr 14;17(1):. doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-70820-6. Epub 2026 Apr 14
Skolnick S,Hall B
Draft genome sequence of a family Acutalibacteraceae isolate, a human gut-derived cholesterol metabolizer.
Microbiol Resour Announc. 2026 Apr 9;15(4):e0113725. doi: 10.1128/mra.01137-25. Epub 2026 Mar 10
Jacoby C,Scorza K,Ecker L,Nol Bernardino P,Little AS,McMillin M,Ramaswamy R,Sundararajan A,Sidebottom AM,Lin H,Dufault-Thompson K,Hall B,Jiang X,Light SH
Gut bacteria metabolize natural and synthetic steroid hormones via the reductive OsrABC pathway.
Cell Host Microbe. 2025 Nov 12;33(11):1873-1885.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2025.09.014. Epub 2025 Oct 20
Jacoby C,Scorza K,Ecker L,Bernardino PN,Little AS,McMillin M,Ramaswamy R,Sundararajan A,Sidebottom AM,Lin H,Dufault-Thompson K,Hall B,Jiang X,Light SH
Gut Bacteria Metabolize Natural and Synthetic Steroid Hormones via the Reductive OsrABC Pathway.
bioRxiv. 2025 Sep 9;:. pii: 2024.10.08.617280. doi: 10.1101/2024.10.08.617280. Epub 2025 Sep 9
Arp G,Jiang AK,Dufault-Thompson K,Levy S,Zhong A,Wassan JT,Grant MR,Li Y,Hall B,Jiang X
Identification of gut bacteria reductases that biotransform steroid hormones.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 8;16(1):6285. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-61425-6. Epub 2025 Jul 8
Minabou Ndjite G,Jiang AK,Ravel CT,Grant MR,Jiang X,Hall B
Gut microbial utilization of the alternative sweetener, D-allulose, via AlsE.
Commun Biol. 2025 Jul 1;8(1):970. doi: 10.1038/s42003-025-08391-3. Epub 2025 Jul 1
Arp G,Levy S,Hall B
Linking bacterial androgen production and prostate cancer.
Nat Microbiol. 2025 May;10(5):1038-1039. doi: 10.1038/s41564-025-01996-8. Epub
Hall B,Jiang X
Bacterial intragenic inversions: a new layer of diversity.
Trends Genet. 2025 Mar;41(3):183-184. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2024.12.002. Epub 2024 Dec 19
Kipp ZA,Badmus OO,Stec DE,Hall B,Hinds TD Jr
Bilirubin bioconversion to urobilin in the gut-liver-kidney axis: A biomarker for insulin resistance in the Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic (CKM) Syndrome.
Metabolism. 2025 Feb;163:156081. doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2024.156081. Epub 2024 Nov 22
Levy S,Jiang AK,Grant MR,Arp G,Minabou Ndjite G,Jiang X,Hall B
Convergent evolution of oxidized sugar metabolism in commensal and pathogenic microbes in the inflamed gut.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 28;16(1):1121. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-56332-9. Epub 2025 Jan 28
Ndjite GM,Jiang A,Ravel C,Grant M,Jiang X,Hall B
Gut Microbial Utilization of the Alternative Sweetener, D-Allulose, via AlsE.
bioRxiv. 2024 Nov 8;:. pii: 2024.11.07.622513. doi: 10.1101/2024.11.07.622513. Epub 2024 Nov 8
Arp G,Jiang A,Dufault-Thompson K,Levy S,Zhong A,Wassan JT,Grant M,Li Y,Hall B,Jiang X
Gut Bacteria Encode Reductases that Biotransform Steroid Hormones.
bioRxiv. 2024 Oct 5;:. pii: 2024.10.04.616736. doi: 10.1101/2024.10.04.616736. Epub 2024 Oct 5
Dufault-Thompson K,Levy S,Hall B,Jiang X
Bilirubin reductase shows host-specific associations in animal large intestines.
ISME J. 2024 Jan 8;18(1):. doi: 10.1093/ismejo/wrae242. Epub
Hall B,Levy S,Dufault-Thompson K,Arp G,Zhong A,Ndjite GM,Weiss A,Braccia D,Jenkins C,Grant MR,Abeysinghe S,Yang Y,Jermain MD,Wu CH,Ma B,Jiang X
BilR is a gut microbial enzyme that reduces bilirubin to urobilinogen.
Nat Microbiol. 2024 Jan;9(1):173-184. doi: 10.1038/s41564-023-01549-x. Epub 2024 Jan 3
Liu CM,Aziz M,Park DE,Wu Z,Stegger M,Li M,Wang Y,Schmidlin K,Johnson TJ,Koch BJ,Hungate BA,Nordstrom L,Gauld L,Weaver B,Rolland D,Statham S,Hall B,Sariya S,Davis GS,Keim PS,Johnson JR,Price LB
Using source-associated mobile genetic elements to identify zoonotic extraintestinal E. coli infections.
One Health. 2023 Jun;16:100518. doi: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2023.100518. Epub 2023 Feb 28
Hall B,Levy S,Dufault-Thompson K,Ndjite GM,Weiss A,Braccia D,Jenkins C,Yang Y,Arp G,Abeysinghe S,Jermain M,Wu CH,Jiang X
Discovery of the gut microbial enzyme responsible for bilirubin reduction to urobilinogen.
bioRxiv. 2023 Feb 8;:. pii: 2023.02.07.527579. doi: 10.1101/2023.02.07.527579. Epub 2023 Feb 8
Braccia DJ,Minabou Ndjite G,Weiss A,Levy S,Abeysinghe S,Jiang X,Pop M,Hall B
Gut Microbiome-Wide Search for Bacterial Azoreductases Reveals Potentially Uncharacterized Azoreductases Encoded in the Human Gut Microbiome.
Drug Metab Dispos. 2023 Jan;51(1):142-153. doi: 10.1124/dmd.122.000898. Epub 2022 Sep 18
Dufault-Thompson K,Hall B,Jiang X
Taxonomic distribution and evolutionary analysis of the equol biosynthesis gene cluster.
BMC Genomics. 2022 Mar 5;23(1):182. doi: 10.1186/s12864-022-08426-7. Epub 2022 Mar 5