Studying the link between the gut and mental health is personal for this scientist

Calliope Holingue is researching the microbiome among kids with autism. She's part of a growing field of research seeking to understand the gut-brain axis. (Kennedy Krieger Institute)

Sixteen years ago, when Calliope Holingue was in high school, she had a problem. Two, actually. She developed gastrointestinal symptoms severe enough to force her to give up running, plus she had a long history of anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

"And I wondered if maybe there was a link between my mental health and the GI symptoms I was experiencing," she recalls now.