How our other genome - the microbiome - keeps us healthy (KORCSMAROS_E17ICASE)

Lead Research Organisation: University of East Anglia
Department Name: Graduate Office

Abstract

How our other genome - the microbiome - keeps us healthy: understanding a long friendship using a combination of computational and experimental approaches.

Systems biology has revolutionized our way of thinking about biological systems. It has furthered our understanding of how various cellular processes contribute to health and if dysregulated lead to diseases. Interestingly, shifts in microbial composition are usually observed in diseased states and phenotypes. This throws open a number of questions such as the function(s) of the microbiome in maintaining health and homeostasis. Besides, the role of the microbiota in determining the final outcome of the interactions between environmental stressors and host responses is unclear. Thus, better understanding the beneficial effect of the commensal microbiota on host processes promoting homeostasis could help minimize the deleterious side-effects of products and thereby help in the formulation of safe and functional applications.

Studentship Projects

Project Reference Relationship Related To Start End Student Name
BB/M011216/1 01/10/2015 31/03/2024
1940961 Studentship BB/M011216/1 01/10/2017 31/03/2022 Lejla Potari-Gul
 
Description - During the first two and a half years of the PhD project I set up the workflow to infer host-microbe protein-protein interaction network based on microbial community data
- We have found that there are differences regarding the human targets in healthy and diseased conditions (gingivitis in the oral cavity and dandruff on scalp)
- I have created a semi-automated pipeline which requires the list of proteins from the microbiome and give back the potential human protein targets.
Exploitation Route As a result, a semi-authomated pipelin will be carried out for analysing the effect of the human microbiome (based on meta-data) on the host signalling pathways. The workflow will help to highlight the key differences in the signalling between healthy and diseased conditions. Because it is an iCASE project, the industrial partner (Unilever company) will use the workflow for creating their products.
Sectors Healthcare
 
Description Collaboration with Unilever (ICASE PhD project) 
Organisation Unilever
Department Unilever Research and Development
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution In this collaborative project, I have been developing a semi-authomated pipeline to predict the effect of the human microbiome on the host signalisation in oral cavity. Unilever will use the outcome in their researches and products.
Collaborator Contribution Unilever provided 3 months internship to work in an industrial environment and gain insight into their research.
Impact The current outcome of the collaboration (due to the lack of the meta- and host response data) is a host-microbe interaction network describing the potential human protein targets by the microbiome in the healthy and diseased oral cavity.
Start Year 2017
 
Description EI Innovate Linking Datasets to Bioscience - Engagement with industry 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact I presented my PhD project to ~40 people participating in the event. As an outcome, I got questions from the public which helped me to think about the future improvements and directions of the project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Scientific Advisory Board Meeting (poster + talk) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Supporters
Results and Impact I gave a talk about my PhD to ~50 people including members of the Scientific Advisory Board which is an independent body that advises the Institute's Senior Management team and Trustee Directors on the strategic relevance, balance and quality of the research programme at the Institute. I got important feedbacks which improved my project. I also presented a scientific poster about the research which gave a possibility to have one to one discussions with people who attended the meeting.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Talk at European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation conference (ECCO) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact I presented my project in 5 minutes to hundreds of clinicians and researchers included in the field of intestinal bowel disease research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.ecco-ibd.eu/ecco22.html