Dr. Stephen Coleman is an Assistant Professor of Equine Genetics in the Department of Animal Sciences at Colorado State University. Dr. Coleman received his Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Biotechnology, Master of Science in Veterinary Science, and PhD in Veterinary Science from the University of Kentucky. For his graduate work, Dr. Coleman used comparative genomics and next-generation sequencing technology to characterize equine genome organization and protein-coding gene structure. These efforts contributed to the publication of the equine genome sequence in 2009. Dr. Coleman completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology at Colorado State University, before joining the Department of Animal Sciences in 2015.
Dr. Coleman is interested in understanding the dynamic and ever-changing interactions between a horse and its gut microbiome required to maintain balance (or homeostasis) and support "normal" digestive physiology. To this end, Dr. Coleman's lab is interested in understanding the normal variation present in a healthy microbiome, the impact of management practices on microbiome composition, and the role that gut physiology and gene expression play in maintaining gastrointestinal homeostasis.