THE CHALLENGE
Up to 100 trillion bacterial cells reside within the typical human body. The genes of these bacteria are collectively referred to as the microbiome, which plays a crucial role in an individual’s health and disease development. In particular, interactions between members of a microbiome community can significantly impact human physiology. For effective study of the microbiome, it is necessary to gain insight into these interactions through varying conditions such as community composition. Thus, improving tools for single cell isolation will greatly expedite research into community dynamics. Currently, many tools for cell capture are nonspecific and are not capable of capturing a single target strain of bacteria. As a result, research into influence of population ecology of the microbiome has been greatly limited. Here, we explore a method for targeted capture of members of the microbiome in order to manipulate proportional populations on the species level.
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The microbiome is comprised of the genes of the bacteria cells residing within the human body and plays a crucial role in health and disease development.
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It is necessary to gain insight into these interactions through varying conditions such as community composition for effective study of the microbiome.
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Most of current cell capture tools are nonspecific and are not capable of capturing a single target strain of bacteria.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Increase the efficiency and specificity of microbiota capture in the human microbiome for use in research and clinical applications.
i. Sub-problem statements
Current protocols for bacterial capture through glycan binding are not optimized to bind the glycans as efficiently as possible. We plan to optimize this protocol for each glycan we will work with in order to capture them quickly and efficiently. We also plan to determine bacteria-glycan pairs for capture of clinically relevant strains of bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus. We will test these pairs in co-culture with different strains to validate specificity. This will enable removal of targeted bacteria and manipulation of the microbiome in order to increase understanding of microbial interactions and study the microbiome more in-depth. These findings can then be applied to personalized treatments.
Method Development:
Currently, the items necessary for microbiome bacterial determination through binding and capture have to be ordered from different companies. Ordering items from multiple sources and waiting for all the components to arrive can delay research. After optimizing the protocol, we will assemble a kit containing all of the components that are necessary to perform bacteria capture through glycan binding. This would solve the time delay issue and better enable studies of microbial interactions.
Specificity:
Current methods for bacterial capture have high efficiency and are effective in removing many cells at once but lack specificity, making them unusable for strain-specific capture. In order to create personalized treatments or study microbiome ecology more in-depth, it is necessary to perform strain-specific captures. Therefore, we plan to develop a method that can remove a single target bacterial strain from a mixture of various other strains.
Page Leader: Katherine Chang