The cogwheels of gut microbiota-host interactions

Neerupma Bhardwaj ¹ Noa Mandelbaum ¹ Nadav Ben-Assa ¹ Lillie Beck ¹ Dana Kadosh ¹ Shaqed Carasso ¹ Tal Gefen ¹ Haitham Hajjo ¹ Natalie Constantinescu ¹ Yossi Ben-Dor ¹ Naama Eshal ¹ Rawi Naddaf ¹ Naama Geva-Zatorsky ^1,2

¹Department of Cell Biology and Cancer Science, Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Technion Integrated Cancer Center (TICC), Haifa, Israel, Technion, Israel
²Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Azrieli Global Scholar, MaRS Centre, West Tower 661 University Ave., Suite 505 Toronto, ON M5G 1M1, Canada, CIFAR

Naama Geva-Zatorsky¹, Neerupma Bhardwaj, Noa Mandelbaum, Nadav Ben-Assa, Lillie Beck, Dana Kadosh, Shaqed Carasso, Haitham Hajjo, Natalie Constantinescu, Yossi Ben-Dor, Naama Eshal, Tal Gefen

The gut microbiota has been shown to have substantial effects on host physiology. Studies mostly focus on changes in the microbiota composition in health and disease, and on the effects of either individual or specific microbial consortia on the host, as a whole. In my lab, we are studying the interactions of gut microbes with the mammalian host, in a dynamic manner. We do so by applying unique methods that allow us to focus on microbes of interest, in an individualized manner. Our previous work has demonstrated the immune-modulatory capabilities of gut microbes from across phyla¹ and has associated microbes to several disease models^2,3. Building upon these studies and our recent methods developments (Geva-Zatorsky et., al ⁴, and unpublished), we are currently characterizing the mechanisms underlying gut microbiota-host interactions in real-time, to elucidate their causal effects the molecules at play.

1 Geva-Zatorsky, N. et al. Cell (2017).

2 Tan, T. G. et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci (2016).

3 Sefik, E. et al. Science (2015).

4 Geva-Zatorsky, N. et al. (2015).