Jonathan Lendrum is applying for an undergraduate research grant to continue his independent research project testing the links between gut microbiota and brain function. He has already treated mice with antibiotics and a high-fat diet to deplete gut bacteria and alter composition. Analysis of fecal samples will determine changes in gut bacteria populations that may relate to changes he observed in gut permeability and sleep behavior. The additional funding will allow him to use next-generation DNA sequencing to fully analyze the microbial composition changes. His faculty advisor, Dr. Liu, highly recommends him as an independent researcher and is available to advise on data analysis and publishing results.

1. To: Undergraduate Research and Creativity Grant Review Committee
I am writing to you in support of Jonathan Lendrum’s application for the
undergraduate research and creativity grant. Jonathan is currently a major in Biology-
Biomedical concentration at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse. I have known
Jonathan since fall 2014 as his course instructor for Comparative Animal Physiology. He
received an A in the class, with an impressive 95% on the cumulative final. He had a
great attitude, was highly motivated, and genuinely interested in the subject.
Most of the undergraduate research students take a research project from their
faculty advisor and work on the project under the faculty advisor’s direct supervision.
Jonathan took a very different route. He developed his own original ideas and actively
reached out to faculty advisors who might be able to help him to test his ideas. He is very
interested in the links between gut microbiota and brain function. Specifically, he would
like to test a hypothesis that perturbation of gut microbiota by antibiotic treatment or
high-fat diet activates gut-brain axis and alters sleep behavior. Since this is a relatively
broad topic, Jonathan sought help from several UWL faculty members from different
disciplines, including Dr. Andrew Berns from Computer Science Department, Drs. Barret
Klein, Sumei Liu, and Brad Seebach from Biology Department. I (Sumei Liu) am one of
his faculty advisors to help him test how perturbation of gut microbiota changes gut
permeability. Increasing in gut permeability may open up a route for gut microbiota or
their metabolites to enter the body, active the gut-brain axis, and change brain function.
Jonathan received an undergraduate research and creativity grant in spring 2015
to start the project. During this phase of the project, he treated the mice with broad-

2. spectrum antibiotics and high-fat diet for 2 weeks. Broad-spectrum antibiotics would
deplete the gut microbiota, while high-fat diet would change the composition of gut
microbiota. He videotaped the sleep behaviors of the animals continuously before and
during the treatment period. He collected all samples and is currently doing data analysis.
One of the critical components of the project is to determine the changes in gut
bacteria population after antibiotic or high-fat diet treatment. By knowing the gut bacteria
composition, we can relate the changes in gut permeability and sleep behavior to certain
population of bacteria in the gut. Jonathan plans to send the fecal samples from our
experiment to the University of Madison Biotechnology Center for next-generation DNA
sequencing, a technique that can determine the microbial composition down to genus and
species level. An additional support by the undergraduate research and creativity grant
will help him achieve this goal.
Jonathan is a very independent undergraduate researcher. This is his project. He
designed the experiments, carried out the experiments, and even monitored the progress
of the project among several collaborators, including faculty members and undergraduate
research students. I view myself as his collaborator rather than a supervisor. I fully
support his application and will help him as much as I can. Aside from the experiments, I
will be available for advice on data analysis and preparation and submission of abstracts
and manuscripts. Due to the nature of the experiments, four months will be required to
complete the proposed experiments and an extra 2-3 months will be needed to finish data
analysis and preparation of abstracts and manuscripts.
If I can be of any further assistance, please feel to contact me.

3. Sincerely,
Sumei Liu
Associate Professor, Department of Biology