UK Institute of Microbiome Engineering
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Cell and Developmental Biology
Abstract
he microbes that live within us influence our health and wellbeing. Research has shown changes in the microbiome are linked with inflammatory diseases, diabetes, obesity, cancer and mental health. They can also determine how effective treatments are and how well we recover from surgery. The microbiome has also become a multi-billion-dollar industry, with drug and diagnostic companies racing to capture the market for personalised medicine.
Despite these advances, our understanding of the interactions between the host and the microbiota remain primitive as we do not have the tools to interrogate these systems in a quantitative manner. Here we outline a proposal to build a world- leading multi-disciplinary and multi-centre UK Institute for Microbiome Engineering. This institute will leverage cutting-edge engineering approaches to biology - systems and synthetic biology - to influence and modify the microbiota in well determined ways. This investment will have a huge and significant impact for the NHS over the next 30 years, influencing hospital treatment, home healthcare, disease prevention, mental health and wellbeing.
Despite these advances, our understanding of the interactions between the host and the microbiota remain primitive as we do not have the tools to interrogate these systems in a quantitative manner. Here we outline a proposal to build a world- leading multi-disciplinary and multi-centre UK Institute for Microbiome Engineering. This institute will leverage cutting-edge engineering approaches to biology - systems and synthetic biology - to influence and modify the microbiota in well determined ways. This investment will have a huge and significant impact for the NHS over the next 30 years, influencing hospital treatment, home healthcare, disease prevention, mental health and wellbeing.
Organisations
- University College London (Lead Research Organisation)
- CC Biotech Ltd (Project Partner)
- University of Manchester (Project Partner)
- Newcastle University (Project Partner)
- University of Oxford (Project Partner)
- University of Warwick (Project Partner)
- University of Edinburgh (Project Partner)
- Earlham Institute (Project Partner)
- Syngulon (Project Partner)
Publications
Rutter JW
(2022)
Microbiome engineering: engineered live biotherapeutic products for treating human disease.
in Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology
Description | We have developed a new engineering biology platform for the delivery of antimicrobial peptides. This enables us to design new microbes (engineered live biotherapeutics) that can potentially target specific species of bacteria in the human body. |
Exploitation Route | This platform is general and could be used to express bacteriocins to target any bacteria. This could be used by any academics/clinicians/companies interested in microbiome engineering. |
Sectors | Healthcare,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |