Brantley Hall headshot
Contact Info
Office: 3126 Bioscience Research Bldg.
Phone: 301-405-7481
Brantley Hall
Assistant Professor

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

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
Hall B,Jiang X
Bacterial intragenic inversions: a new layer of diversity.
Trends Genet. 2024 Dec 19;:. pii: S0168-9525(24)00296-8. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2024.12.002. Epub 2024 Dec 19
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
Jacoby C,Scorza K,Ecker L,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. 2024 Oct 9;:. pii: 2024.10.08.617280. doi: 10.1101/2024.10.08.617280. Epub 2024 Oct 9
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
Yan W,Hall AB,Jiang X
Bacteroidales species in the human gut are a reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes regulated by invertible promoters.
NPJ Biofilms Microbiomes. 2022 Jan 10;8(1):1. doi: 10.1038/s41522-021-00260-1. Epub 2022 Jan 10
Braccia DJ,Jiang X,Pop M,Hall AB
The Capacity to Produce Hydrogen Sulfide (H(2)S) via Cysteine Degradation Is Ubiquitous in the Human Gut Microbiome.
Front Microbiol. 2021;12:705583. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.705583. Epub 2021 Oct 20
Mou Z,Yang Y,Hall AB,Jiang X
The taxonomic distribution of histamine-secreting bacteria in the human gut microbiome.
BMC Genomics. 2021 Sep 26;22(1):695. doi: 10.1186/s12864-021-08004-3. Epub 2021 Sep 26
Brown EM,Arellano-Santoyo H,Temple ER,Costliow ZA,Pichaud M,Hall AB,Liu K,Durney MA,Gu X,Plichta DR,Clish CA,Porter JA,Vlamakis H,Xavier RJ
Gut microbiome ADP-ribosyltransferases are widespread phage-encoded fitness factors.
Cell Host Microbe. 2021 Sep 8;29(9):1351-1365.e11. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2021.07.011. Epub 2021 Aug 16
Wilkinson JE,Franzosa EA,Everett C,Li C,HCMPH researchers and trainees,HCMPH investigators,Hu FB,Wirth DF,Song M,Chan AT,Rimm E,Garrett WS,Huttenhower C
A framework for microbiome science in public health.
Nat Med. 2021 May;27(5):766-774. doi: 10.1038/s41591-021-01258-0. Epub 2021 Apr 5
Yang Y,Yan W,Hall AB,Jiang X
Characterizing Transcriptional Regulatory Sequences in Coronaviruses and Their Role in Recombination.
Mol Biol Evol. 2021 Apr 13;38(4):1241-1248. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msaa281. Epub
Kenny DJ,Plichta DR,Shungin D,Koppel N,Hall AB,Fu B,Vasan RS,Shaw SY,Vlamakis H,Balskus EP,Xavier RJ
Cholesterol Metabolism by Uncultured Human Gut Bacteria Influences Host Cholesterol Level.
Cell Host Microbe. 2020 Aug 12;28(2):245-257.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2020.05.013. Epub 2020 Jun 15
Yang Y,Yan W,Hall B,Jiang X
Characterizing transcriptional regulatory sequences in coronaviruses and their role in recombination.
bioRxiv. 2020 Jun 21;:. pii: 2020.06.21.163410. doi: 10.1101/2020.06.21.163410. Epub 2020 Jun 21
Nguyen LH,Ma W,Wang DD,Cao Y,Mallick H,Gerbaba TK,Lloyd-Price J,Abu-Ali G,Hall AB,Sikavi D,Drew DA,Mehta RS,Arze C,Joshi AD,Yan Y,Branck T,DuLong C,Ivey KL,Ogino S,Rimm EB,Song M,Garrett WS,Izard J,Huttenhower C,Chan AT
Association Between Sulfur-Metabolizing Bacterial Communities in Stool and Risk of Distal Colorectal Cancer in Men.
Gastroenterology. 2020 Apr;158(5):1313-1325. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2019.12.029. Epub 2020 Jan 20