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Matthew R. Olm, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Integrative Physiology
Director, Integrative Microbiome Research Laboratory
matthew.olm@colorado.edu | 303-492-0858 | Ramaley C351C

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Matthew Olm studies how the infant gut microbiome assembles, how it interacts with the developing immune system, and how these processes differ between industrialized and non-industrialized populations. His lab combines strain-resolved metagenomics, immunological methods, and open-source software development; his tools dRep and inStrain have each been downloaded more than 100,000 times. He received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and trained as a postdoc at Stanford before joining Â鶹´«Ã½ in 2024.

Research Interests

• Infant gut microbiome assembly
• Mucosal immunology and IgA–microbiome interactions
• Microbiomes across lifestyles and global populations
• Computational biology and software development

Education

• 2019, Ph.D., Microbiology, University of California, Berkeley
• 2014, B.S., Microbiology (minor in Computer Science), University of Pittsburgh

Professional Experience

• 2024–present, Assistant Professor, Integrative Physiology, Â鶹´«Ã½
• 2020–2024, Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University
• 2019–2020, Interim Postdoctoral Scholar, UC Berkeley

Selected Funding and Honors

• 2026–2031, NIH NIGMS Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (R35)
• 2026–2029, Boettcher Foundation Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Award
• 2025, Â鶹´«Ã½ UROP Mentor Award
• 2021–2024, NIH NIDDK F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship

Selected Publications

Full list on and the lab website.

• Carter, M.M., Liu, Z., Olm, M.R.*, Martin, M., Sprockett, D.D., Ghadermazi, P., et al. (2026). Prehistoric global migration of vanishing gut microbes with humans. Nature.
• Olm, M.R.*, Spencer, S.P.*, et al. (2025). Metagenomic immunoglobulin sequencing reveals IgA coating of microbial strains in the healthy human gut. Nature Microbiology 10, 112–125.
• Carter, M.M.*, Olm, M.R.*, Merrill, B.D.*, et al. (2023). Ultra-deep sequencing of Hadza hunter-gatherers recovers vanishing gut microbes. Cell 186, 3111–3124.
• Olm, M.R.*, Dahan, D.*, et al. (2022). Robust variation in infant gut microbiome assembly across a spectrum of lifestyles. Science 376, 1220–1223.
• Olm, M.R., et al. (2021). inStrain profiles population microdiversity from metagenomic data and sensitively detects shared microbial strains. Nature Biotechnology 39, 727–736.

*Equal contribution