Project description
An ecological view of the gut microbiota
Emerging evidence underscores the importance of the gut microbiota in childhood for a healthy adult life. Although early interventions to restore potential imbalances in the gut microbiota of children are promising, they require a better understanding of the mechanisms that regulate microbial populations. Funded by the European Research Council, the MICROECO project proposes an interdisciplinary approach to studying the interaction of microbes within the population and following external stimuli. Researchers will quantitatively profile the gut microbiota of children on a daily basis and associate it with diet and health status. Combined with population ecology, this information will provide a holistic view of the gut microbiota and how it is influenced by various treatments.
Objective
The gut microbiota has wide-ranging effects on host health and represents a promising target for therapeutic manipulation, particularly in early life. Imbalances in the gut microbiota precede the dThe gut microbiota has wide-ranging effects on host health and represents a promising target for therapeutic manipulation, particularly in early life. Imbalances in the gut microbiota precede the development of conditions such as overweight and immunological diseases, which exert a significant burden on society and on individuals. Early identification and treatment of gut microbiota imbalance in childhood thus offers great potential in combatting these problems, and will become an important part of health care in the future. However, achieving this goal will require a high-level understanding of the processes that regulate the microbial populations. Currently our knowledge of the principles governing gut microbiota responses to treatments is insufficient for reliable and targeted microbiota modification. I hypothesize that conceptual limitations are a significant reason for the current inability to reliably predict microbiota responses to treatments and to modify the microbiota. In this interdisciplinary project, based on daily multiomic time series of child gut microbiota and diet and health diaries, I integrate the theoretical and analytical framework of population ecology, novel next-generation metagenomics-based high-resolution quantitative microbiota profiling, and genome-scale metabolic reconstructions into an ecosystem model of the child gut microbiota. The result will be an unprecedented level of understanding of how the gut microbes interact and respond to external forces. The concept can be applied widely to study the numeric and functional microbiota responses to any treatment and to design targeted interventions based on the predicted responses. The project represents the important next step in microbiota research from description to mechanistic understanding.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2021-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
00014 HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Finland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.