Nathaniel Willis

T32 Postdoctoral Trainee, Pierre Research Group

Nate began his career in 2010 with a B.S. in Hospitality Administration from Boston Unviersity before embarking on a foodservice career as a Chef, Institutional Foodservice Manager, and Food Educator. In 2023, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he also studied to become a Registered Dietitian. Since joining MANTP as a Postdoc in 2023, Nate has worked to develop a novel murine model of cycling parenteral nutrition with which to investiagte the metabolic effects of infusion cycling on hepatic outcomes. He also supports a wide range of gut micro- and mycobiome projects with his bioinformatic analytical skills. In his free time, Nate enjoys gardening, cycling, and his futile attempts to train his wife’s cat.

Type: Academic Staff, MANTP Trainees

Panaxynol mitigates chemotherapy-induced intestinal mucositis by improving the colonic microenvironment in murine models

Brooke M Bullard, Brandon N VanderVeen, Thomas D Cardaci, Sierra J McDonald, Arianna V Bastian, Nathaniel B Willis, Mingming Xu, Jie Li, Joseph F Pierre, Lorne J Hofseth, Daping Fan, E Angela Murphy

American journal of physiology. Gastrointestinal and liver physiology. 2026 May 1. pmid:42065376, pmc:PMC13270280, doi:10.1152/ajpgi.00035.2026
Enabling supratheoretical isopropanol yields from carbon-negative glucose fermentations with a Clostridium acetobutylicum- Clostridium ljungdahlii coculture

Noah B Willis, Jonathan K Otten, Hyeongmin Seo, Pradeep C Munasinghe, John D Hill, Eleftherios T Papoutsakis

Metabolic engineering. 2026 March 14. pmid:41831593, doi:10.1016/j.ymben.2026.03.008
Whey Protein Phospholipid Concentrate and Its Fractions as a Diet Intervention Enhance Bone Health and Alter the Gut Microbiome in Weanling Mice

Mitchell T Armstrong, Karen Antunes, Nathaniel B Willis, Mark B Meyer, Joseph F Pierre, Gulustan Ozturk

FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. 2025 December 9. pmid:41363910, pmc:PMC12687760, doi:10.1096/fj.202502683R
Cross-talk between engineered Clostridium acetobutylicum and Clostridium ljungdahlii in syntrophic cocultures enhances isopropanol and butanol production

Jonathan K Otten, John D Hill, Noah B Willis, Joseph Dougherty, Andrew Dalton, Eleftherios T Papoutsakis

Frontiers in microbiology. 2025 October 22. pmid:41122463, pmc:PMC12536658, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2025.1674318
The role of the mycobiome in host physiology and disease: insights from rodent models

Karen Antunes, Nathaniel B Willis, Joseph F Pierre

Lab animal. 2025 October 14. pmid:41087644, pmc:PMC12575366, doi:10.1038/s41684-025-01620-6
Processed Pearl Millet Improves the Morphology and Gut Microbiota in Wistar Rats

Jaqueline Maciel Vieira Theodoro, Lucimar Aguiar da Silva, Vinícius Parzanini Brilhante de São José, Nathaniel Baldwin Willis, Renata Celi Lopes Toledo, Mariana Grancieri, Carlos Wanderlei Piler Carvalho, Joseph Francis Pierre, Bárbara Pereira da Silva, Hércia Stampini Duarte Martino

Foods (Basel, Switzerland). 2025 August 14. pmid:40807689, pmc:PMC12346449, doi:10.3390/foods14152752
Cyclic infusion mitigates liver dysfunction associated with continuous total parenteral nutrition in a novel murine model

Nathaniel B Willis, Tahliyah S Mims, Karen Antunes, Hubert Peng, Mei-I Yen, Chi-Liang Eric Yen, Joseph F Pierre

American journal of physiology. Gastrointestinal and liver physiology. 2025 August 11. pmid:40789651, pmc:PMC12456138, doi:10.1152/ajpgi.00033.2025
Exercise-induced microbiota metabolite enhances CD8 T cell antitumor immunity promoting immunotherapy efficacy

Catherine M Phelps, Nathaniel B Willis, Tingting Duan, Amanda H Lee, Yue Zhang, Daphne M Rodriguez J, Surya P Pandey, Colin R Laughlin, Aaron B I Rosen, Alex C McPherson, Jake H Shapira, Simran K Randhawa, Lee Hedden, Tanner G Richie, Hallie M Wiechman, Mackenzie J Bender, Ina Nemet, Patrick A Zöhrer, Rachel A Gottschalk, Kathryn H Schmitz, Steven J Mullett, Stacy L Gelhaus, Diwakar Davar, Hassane M Zarour, Reinhard Hinterleitner, Thomas Mossington, Jonathan H Badger, Richard R Rodrigues, John A McCulloch, Sonny T M Lee, Karl-Heinz Wagner, Maria G Winter, Sebastian E Winter, Jishnu Das, Joseph F Pierre, Giorgio Trinchieri, Marlies Meisel

Cell. 2025 July 10. pmid:40639377, pmc:PMC12258965, doi:10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.018
Separate, separated, and together: the transcriptional program of the Clostridium acetobutylicum-Clostridium ljungdahlii syntrophy leading to interspecies cell fusion

Noah B Willis, Eleftherios T Papoutsakis

mSystems. 2025 April 29. pmid:40298437, pmc:PMC12090709, doi:10.1128/msystems.00030-25
Inhibitory control is related to fecal short-chain fatty acid concentrations in adults with overweight and obesity

Nathaniel B Willis, Corinne N Cannavale, Anne M Walk, Nicholas A Burd, Hannah D Holscher, Naiman A Khan

Nutrition research (New York, N.Y.). 2025 April 25. pmid:40280069, doi:10.1016/j.nutres.2025.03.006

2025 Excellence in Mentoring Award – UW Postdoctoral Association
2025 GI-Liver Section Trainee Poster Award – APS Summit