Current position

Assistant Professor in Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine investigating dietary and microbial modulation of gut hormones

Education

Post-Doc with Dr. Robert Britton

2017-2021
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

I investigated the effect of probiotic Limosilactobacillus reuteri on gut hormone secretion.

Post-Doc with Dr. Ruth Ley

2011-2017
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

I discovered that beneficial microbes within the small intestine are resilient to the toxicity of dietary fats. I demonstrated that resistance to dietary fat can be acquired through mutation of membrane and fatty acid metabolism genes; however, fatty acid resistance is not required for survival in a high fat diet fed host, indicating that host-associated microbes are protected from the toxicity of dietary fats.

Ph.D. in Genome Sciences with Dr. Bonita Brewer

2006-2011
University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

I determined that chromosomal replication is maintained over evolutionary time through the existence of redundant and potential replication sites in the genome. My research also revealed a previously unrecognized role of replication origins in genome rearrangements and gene amplifications.

A.B. in Biology, summa cum laude, with Dr. Philip Meneely

2002-2006
Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA, USA

I predicted the function of a C. elegans meiotic protein using network analysis.

Selected Grants, Awards, and Honors

Digestive Disease Center Pilot Feasibility Grant, Texas Medical Center

2021

Weston Family Fellow, Weston Foundation

2020

National Library of Medicine Training Fellowship in Biomedical Informatics

2017

Eli & Edythe Broad Fellow of the Life Sciences Research Foundation

2013

NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute Fellowship

2011

Young Presenter Prize for top oral presentation, Comparative Genomics of Eukaryotic Microorganisms Conference

2009

Barry M. Goldwater Scholar

2005

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Interdisciplinary Scholar

2005

Publications

(*co-first authors) (**featured article) (corresponding author)

Microbial stimulation of oxytocin release from the intestinal epithelium via secretin signaling
Danhof HA, Lee J, Thapa A, Britton RA, Di Rienzi SC
Separation of the effects of small intestinal microbiome-diet interactions on human gut hormone secretion
Di Rienzi SC, Danhof HA, Huerta J, Britton RA
Hotspot of de novo telomere addition stabilizes linear amplicons in yeast grown in sulfate-limiting conditions
Hoerr RE, Eng A, Payen C, Di Rienzi SC, Raghuraman MK, Dunham MJ, Brewer BJ, Friedman KL
Drivers of Transcriptional Variance in Human Intestinal Epithelial Organoids
Criss ZK, Bhasin N, Di Rienzi SC, Rajan A, Deans-Fielder K, Swaminathan G, Kamyabi N, Zeng XL, Doddapaneni H, Menon VK, Chakravarti D, Estrella C, Yu X, Patil K, Petrosino JF, Fleet JC, Verzi MP, Christakos S, Helmrath MA, Arimura S, DePinho RA, Britton RA, Maresso AW, Grande-Allen KJ, Blutt SE, Crawford SE, Estes MK, Ramani S
The microbiome affects liver sphingolipids and plasma fatty acids in a murine model of the Western diet based on soybean oil
Di Rienzi SC, Johnson EL, Waters JL, Kennedy EA, Jacobson J, Lawrence P, Wang DH, Worgall TS, Brenna JT, Ley RE
Enhancing responsiveness of human jejunal enteroids to host and microbial stimuli
Ruan W, Engevik MA, Changā€Graham, AL, Danhof HA, Goodwin A, Engevik KA, Shi Z, Hall A, Di Rienzi SC, Venable S, Britton RA, Hyser J, and Versalovic J
Adaptation of the gut microbiota to modern dietary sugars and sweeteners**
Di Rienzi SC, Britton RA
Virome Diversity Correlates with Intestinal Microbiome Diversity in Adult Monozygotic Twins
Moreno-Gallego JL, Chou SP, Di Rienzi SC, Goodrich JK, Spector TD, Bell JT, Youngblut ND, Hewson I, Reyes A, Ley RE
Murine Methyl Donor Deficiency Impairs Early Growth in Association with Dysmorphic Small Intestinal Crypts and Reduced Gut Microbial Diversity
Alves da Silva AV, de Castro Oliveira SB, Di Rienzi SC, Dehan LM, Rood JK, Carreira VS, Le H, Maier EA, Betz KJ, Aihara E, Ley RE, Preidis GA, Shen L, Moore SR
Resilience of small intestinal beneficial bacteria to the toxicity of soybean oil fatty acids
Di Rienzi SC, Jacobson J, Kennedy EA, Bell ME, Shi Q, Waters J, Lawrence P, Brenna JT, Britton RA, Walter J, Ley RE
Novel rhizosphere soil alleles for the enzyme 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase queried for function with an in vivo competition assay
Jin Z*, Di Rienzi SC*, Janzon A, Werner JJ, Angenent LT, Fowler DM, Dangl JL, and Ley RE
Origin-Dependent Inverted-Repeat Amplification: Tests of a model for inverted DNA amplification
Brewer BJ, Payen C, Di Rienzi SC, Higgins MM, Ong G, Dunham MJ, and Raghuraman MK
Conducting a microbiome study
Goodrich JK, Di Rienzi SC, Poole AC, Koren O, Walters WA, Caporaso JG, Knight R, and Ley RE
The dynamics of diverse segmental amplifications in populations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae adapting to strong selection
Payen C, Di Rienzi SC, Ong GT, Pogachar JL, Sanchez JC, Sunshine AB, Raghuraman MK, Brewer BJ, and Dunham MJ
The human gut and subsurface sediment harbor non-photosynthetic Cyanobacteria
Di Rienzi SC*, Sharon I*, Koren O, Wrighton K, Hug L, Thomas BC, Goodrich JK, Banfield, JF, and Ley RE
Maintaining replication origins in the face of genomic change
Di Rienzi SC*, Lindstrom KC*, Mann, T, Noble B, Raghuraman MK, and Brewer BJ
Replication stress-induced chromosome breakage is correlated with replication fork progression and is preceded by single-stranded DNA formation
Feng W, Di Rienzi SC, Raghuraman MK, and Brewer BJ
Genetic, genomic, and molecular tools for studying the protoploid yeast, L. waltii
Di Rienzi SC*, Lindstrom KC*, Lancaster R, Rolczynski L, Raghuraman MK, and Brewer BJ
Fragile genomic sites are associated with origins of replication
Di Rienzi SC, Collingwood D, Raghuraman MK, and Brewer BJ