Topic: gut microbiome

Gut microbiome research needs causal explanations of microbial effects on health, beyond descriptive associations. This conference examines poorly understood microbial genes and the model organisms, genetic tools and collaborative approaches needed to assign their functions. Sessions cover data-driven discovery, genetic perturbation, multi-omics, cellular organisation, imaging protein machines, ecological interactions with hosts and phages, and connections to other microbiomes. The aim is to connect molecular mechanisms with microbiome engineering and health applications. The programme uses E

Habitual consumption of a “Western diet”, containing higher than recommended levels of simple sugars and saturated fatty acids, is associated with cognitive impairments in humans and in various experimental animal models. Emerging findings reveal that the specific mnemonic processes that are disrupted by Western diet consumption are those that rely on the hippocampus, a brain region classically linked with memory control and more recently with the higher-order control of food intake. Our laboratory has established rat models in which excessive consumption of different components of a Western d

Gestational exposure to environmental toxins, infections, and stressors are epidemiologically linked to neurodevelopmental disorders with strong male-bias, such as autism spectrum disorder. We modeled some of these prenatal risk factors in mice, by co-exposing pregnant dams to an environmental pollutant and limited-resource stress, which robustly dysregulated the maternal immune system. Male but not female offspring displayed long-lasting behavioral abnormalities and alterations in the activity of brain networks encoding social interactions, along with disruptions of gut structure and microbio

Broadly, the Mauro Costa-Mattioli laboratory (The MCM Lab) encompasses two complementary lines of research. The first one, more traditional but very important, aims at unraveling the molecular mechanisms underlying memory formation (e.g., using state-of-the-art molecular and cell-specific genetic approaches). Learning and memory disorders can strike the brain during development (e.g., Autism Spectrum Disorders and Down Syndrome), as well as during adulthood (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease). We are interested in understanding the specific circuits and molecular pathways that are primarily targeted i

We are interested in understanding how microbes impact the behavior of host animals. Animal nervous systems likely evolved in environments richly surrounded by microbes, yet the impact of bacteria on nervous system function has been relatively under-studied. A challenge has been to identify systems in which both host and microbe are amenable to genetic manipulation, and which enable high-throughput behavioral screening in response to defined and naturalistic conditions. To accomplish these goals, we use an animal host — the roundworm C. elegans, which feeds on bacteria — in combination with it

Gut microbiome has strongly emerged as a pivotal factor in the pathogenesis of stroke via gut-brain axis. However, it remains uncertain whether interventions that modulate gut microbiome can constitute a potent strategy to improve stroke outcome. The present study was carried out to explore interventions that affect stroke outcome through gut-brain axis.Eligibility criteria was applied base on PICO to search and select studies. Appropriate MESH-terms were used as search terms to source for information from PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Ebsco, and Scopus from 1st January 1990 to 31s