Mechanisms that connect ecology to disease in a defined gut microbial community

What To Know

This is an NIH-funded Stanford research project (project record) that studies how changes in gut microbial community composition affect metabolism and disease in defined gnotobiotic mouse models.

The team will make single-strain and multi-strain “dropout” communities from a defined consortia, profile their effects using metagenomics and targeted metabolomics, and test candidate microbial community therapies in germ-free mice focused on bile acid metabolism and hydrogenotroph function relevant to IBS with bloating.

The proposal’s three aims are: (1) build and metabolically profile 50 single-strain dropout communities in gnotobiotic mice using deep sequencing and metabolomics of feces, urine, and plasma; (2) investigate how strain removal/addition alters bile acid biochemistry and model candidate therapeutic communities to correct bile acid lesions (with attention to

7α-dehydroxylation and bile salt hydrolase functions); (3) characterize hydrogen-consuming strains (acetogens, sulfate-reducing bacteria) and model therapeutic communities for IBS-associated bloating.

This summary is grounded in the NIH Reporter project abstract and metadata (project-record). It describes the planned experiments and goals; it does not report completed results or clinical recommendations.