Ayres received her BA in molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley and her PhD at Stanford University School of Medicine in the laboratory of David Schneider, working on resistance and infection tolerance using the model organism Drosophila.[3][4] She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Russell Vance at the University of California, Berkeley where she published on the role of innate immunity in the recognition of drug resistant pathobionts, or potentially virulent species from the microbiome.[5]
Research
Ayres current research focuses on how microbes can promote the health of their host organism. She uses mathematical and evolutionary models to predict how the beneficial microbes in the gut can be used to fight diseases. Specifically, her lab has demonstrated how a strain of E. coli prevents inflammation-induced wasting, and how a strain Salmonella inhibits sickness-induced anorexia, thus protecting their host from the deleterious effects of infection.[6][7]
Publications
Troha, K., Ayres, J.S. Metabolic Adaptations to Infections at the Organismal Level. (2020) Trends in Immunology. DOI: 10.1016/j.it.2019.12.001
Sanchez, K.K., Chen, G.Y., Schieber, A.M.P., Redford, S.E., Shokhirev, M.N., Leblanc, M., Lee, Y.M., Ayres, J.S. Cooperative Metabolic Adaptations in the Host Can Favor Asymptomatic Infection and Select for Attenuated Virulence in an Enteric Pathogen. (2018) Cell. 175(1):146-158. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.07.016
Chen, G.Y., Ayres, J.S. When the Gut Gets Tough, the Enterocytes Get Going. (2018) Immunity. 48(5):837-839. DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2018.04.036
McCarville, J.L., Ayres, J.S. Disease tolerance: concept and mechanisms. (2018) Current Opinion in Immunology. 50:88-93. DOI: 10.1016/j.coi.2017.12.003
Lee, Y.M., Ayres, J.S. Decoding the intestinal epithelium cell by cell. (2018) Nature Immunology. 19(1):7-9. DOI: 10.1038/s41590-017-0011-0
Rao, S., Ayres, J.S. Resistance and tolerance defenses in cancer: Lessons from infectious diseases. (2017) Seminars in Immunology. 32:54-61. DOI: 10.1016/j.smim.2017.08.004
Rauch, I., Deets, K.A., Ji, D.X., von Moltke, J., Tenthorey, J.L., Lee, A.Y., Philip, N.H., Ayres, J.S., Brodsky, I.E., Gronert, K., Vance, R.E. NAIP-NLRC4 Inflammasomes Coordinate Intestinal Epithelial Cell Expulsion with Eicosanoid and IL-18 Release via Activation of Caspase-1 and -8. (2017) Immunity. 46(4):649-659. DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2017.03.016
Rao, S., Schieber, A.M., O'Connor, C.P., Leblanc, M., Michel, D., Ayres, J.S. Pathogen-Mediated Inhibition of Anorexia Promotes Host Survival and Transmission. (2017) Cell. 168(3):503-516.e12. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.01.006
Ayres, J.S. Microbes Dress for Success: Tolerance or Resistance? (2017) Trends in Microbiology. 25(1):1-3. DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2016.11.006
Schieber, A.M., Ayres, J.S. Thermoregulation as a disease tolerance defense strategy. (2016) Pathog Dis. 74(9). DOI: 10.1093/femspd/ftw106
Ayres, J.S. Disease Tolerance Trick or Treat: Give Your Brain Something Good to Eat. (2016) Cell. 166(6):1368-70. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.08.034
Shen, R., Wang, B., Giribaldi, M.G., Ayres, J., Thomas, J.B., Montminy, M. Neuronal energy-sensing pathway promotes energy balance by modulating disease tolerance. (2016) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 113(23):E3307-14. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1606106113
Schieber, A.M., Lee, Y.M., Chang, M.W., Leblanc, M., Collins, B., Downes, M., Evans, R.M., Ayres, J.S. Disease tolerance mediated by microbiome E. coli involves inflammasome and IGF-1 signaling. (2015) Science. 350(6260):558-63. DOI: 10.1126/science.aac6468
von Moltke, J., Ayres, J.S., Kofoed, E.M., Chavarría-Smith, J., Vance, R.E. Recognition of bacteria by inflammasomes. (2013) Annual Review of Immunology. 31:73-106. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-immunol-032712-095944
Ayres, J.S., Trinidad, N.J., Vance, R.E. Lethal inflammasome activation by a multidrug-resistant pathobiont upon antibiotic disruption of the microbiota. (2012) Nature Medicine. 18(5):799-806. DOI: 10.1038/nm.2729