The Holistic Microbiome in Health and Disease – Linking the Oral, Gut and Respiratory Microbiomes

ThisThe Holistic Microbiome in Health and Disease – Linking the Oral, Gut and Respiratory Microbiomes project at University of Dundee focuses on recruiting new cohorts to study the microbiome contemporaneously across multiple body sites.

For this The Holistic Microbiome in Health and Disease – Linking the Oral, Gut and Respiratory Microbiomes project at University of Dundee , 100 healthy volunteers (50 children and 50 adults) will be recruited from clinics at Dundee Dental Hospital & School to explore microbial colonisation of the respiratory tract (nose), mouth, and gut (faeces) to facilitate molecular microbiological assessment of 50 subjects, including 16S rRNA sequencing, and targeted microbial culture to recover Fusobacterium, Haemophilus and Campylobacter in 25 subjects. These organisms have been chosen as candidates of interest in oral, gut, liver, and respiratory diseases, but also to help develop the necessary techniques to target an organism and study isolates in detail.

Practicality

This PhD will be important in defining a local “healthy” microbiome for use in countless future studies as controls. It will also generate pilot data in disease as a springboard for future funding.

The student will expand to proof-of-principle pilot work in small cohorts of four disease states:

• paediatric Crohn’s disease

• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

• orofacial granulomatosis

• cirrhosis