Alexander Carlson, PhD, is a postdoctoral research associate at UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. He completed his PhD in neuroscience from UNC Chapel Hill in 2019 as part of the MD/PhD program. His doctoral work in Rebecca Knickmeyer Santelli’s lab detailed important novel associations of the infant gut microbiome with cognitive development, fear behavior, and brain development. His current work in Cathi Propper’s lab is investigating the impact of prenatal stress on the prenatal microbiome, infant gut microbiome, brain development, and behavior.