The impact of antibiotics on the early life microbiota
Lead Research Organisation:
University of East Anglia
Department Name: Graduate Office
Abstract
We are born sterile, but soon become colonised by complex microbial communities, termed the microbiota which are critical to our health. Importantly, the acquisition and development of the early life microbiota can be influenced by numerous factors and antibiotic treatment is suggested as among the most significant, leading to an immediate reduction in microbial abundance and species diversity.
Antibiotics are highly prescribed during the first few years of life, particularly when infants are residing in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). In addition, exposing the early life gut microbiota to significant levels of antibiotics may create an important reservoir of resistant strains and of transferable resistance genes, the so called "resistome", which may correlate with the increasing incidence of antibiotic-resistant and more infective pathogens.
The goal of this PhD studentship is to determine how antibiotic administration in NICU infants influences the overall microbiota composition and how intensive antibiotic treatment promotes acquisition and carriage of antibiotic resistance genes. This PhD studentship represents an excellent training module for a wide range of microbiology, and bioinformatic techniques utilising human infant samples including; bacterial culturing, RT-PCR, next generation sequencing, and bioinformatics tools. Norwich is a leading microbiology and microbiota research centre and represents an excellent platform for a starting scientific career.
Antibiotics are highly prescribed during the first few years of life, particularly when infants are residing in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). In addition, exposing the early life gut microbiota to significant levels of antibiotics may create an important reservoir of resistant strains and of transferable resistance genes, the so called "resistome", which may correlate with the increasing incidence of antibiotic-resistant and more infective pathogens.
The goal of this PhD studentship is to determine how antibiotic administration in NICU infants influences the overall microbiota composition and how intensive antibiotic treatment promotes acquisition and carriage of antibiotic resistance genes. This PhD studentship represents an excellent training module for a wide range of microbiology, and bioinformatic techniques utilising human infant samples including; bacterial culturing, RT-PCR, next generation sequencing, and bioinformatics tools. Norwich is a leading microbiology and microbiota research centre and represents an excellent platform for a starting scientific career.
Organisations
Publications
Alcon-Giner C
(2017)
Optimisation of 16S rRNA gut microbiota profiling of extremely low birth weight infants.
in BMC genomics
Alcon-Giner C
(2020)
Microbiota Supplementation with Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus Modifies the Preterm Infant Gut Microbiota and Metabolome: An Observational Study.
in Cell reports. Medicine
Chen Y
(2019)
Draft Genome Sequence of Raoultella ornithinolytica P079F W, Isolated from the Feces of a Preterm Infant
in Microbiology Resource Announcements
Chen Y
(2019)
Draft Genome Sequences of Citrobacter freundii and Citrobacter murliniae Strains Isolated from the Feces of Preterm Infants
in Microbiology Resource Announcements
Hughes KR
(2017)
Bifidobacterium breve reduces apoptotic epithelial cell shedding in an exopolysaccharide and MyD88-dependent manner.
in Open biology
Hughes KR
(2020)
The early life microbiota protects neonatal mice from pathological small intestinal epithelial cell shedding.
in FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Leggett RM
(2020)
Rapid MinION profiling of preterm microbiota and antimicrobial-resistant pathogens.
in Nature microbiology
Raymon Kiu
(2017)
Preterm Infant-Associated Clostridium tertium, Clostridium cadaveris, and Clostridium paraputrificum Strains: Genomic and Evolutionary Insights.
in Genome Biology Evolution
Richard Legget And Cristina Alcon
(2017)
Rapid MinION metagenomic profiling of the preterm infant gut microbiota to aid in pathogen diagnostics
in BioRxiv preprint
Rowe WP
(2019)
Streaming histogram sketching for rapid microbiome analytics.
in Microbiome
Will Rowe
(2017)
Streaming histogram sketching for rapid microbiome analytics
Studentship Projects
Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
BB/M011216/1 | 30/09/2015 | 31/03/2024 | |||
1652737 | Studentship | BB/M011216/1 | 30/09/2015 | 06/12/2019 | Cristina Alcon |
Description | This award allowed the publication the nine manuscript detailed in the publication section. |
First Year Of Impact | 2019 |
Sector | Education,Healthcare |
Impact Types | Cultural Policy & public services |
Description | Microbiology Society Travel grant |
Amount | £280 (GBP) |
Organisation | Microbiology Society |
Sector | Learned Society |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2018 |
End | 03/2018 |
Description | Travel grant |
Amount | £233 (GBP) |
Organisation | Microbiology Society |
Sector | Learned Society |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2018 |
End | 03/2018 |
Description | Microbiology Society |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I gave a 20 min talk about my research at the Microbiology Society Conference in Birmingham |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Norwich Science Festival |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Members of the General Public visited our stand in the centre of Norwich. Everyone was veyr engage with our explanations and we changed their views about health and gut microbiome. We got lost of feedback in our website. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | We were one week working at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in central London. This is the most prestigious National Science Exhibition Event. The public who attended was very diverse: schools, turists, members of the Royal Society. We prepared a stand in our lab showing all the areas of research we work on. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Saw project |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | We prepared a lesson focus on antibiotic resistance for a local primary school. The lesson was very successful with activities specially focused for the children. A book was published with other lessons from other scientists at the research park, so school can have access to this material |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://www.sawtrust.org/buy-the-books/saw-antibiotics/ |
Description | School lesson activity on the gut microbiome |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | We prepared a school lesson on the gut microbiome for Y5 students and went to 2 schools to deliver the lesson. The lesson was analysed by a pedagogist at the UEA, and we are aiming to give the materials and lesson plans to schools for them to use during their Science week. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | We were in the Michael Mosley show about The Superbugs |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Our lab was filmed on an research we did where we analysed the presenter´s gut microbiome, and found some multidrug resistance bacteria. We explained our findings to the presenter |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08qkz77 |