Project description
Toward a predictive science of microbiomes
Microbial communities are complex ecosystems. Studying them is not easy because the models available are often too simplistic. Tools like the Lotka-Volterra equations cannot fully capture the metabolic interactions that shape these systems. A deeper, more accurate theory could transform both ecology and microbiology. Understanding these dynamics is key to predicting microbial behaviour. In this context, the ERC-funded MetaMicro project aims to build a new theory of microbial ecology grounded in metabolism. Using tools from statistical mechanics and experiments with gut microbiota, it will explore what drives community composition, species success, and the role of host environments. The goal is to make microbiome science predictive and to guide targeted manipulation of microbial ecosystems.
Objective
Theoretical ecology has genuine potential to revolutionise microbiology, and vice versa. However, current models, such as the Lotka-Volterra equations, are typically too simplistic to apply and test rigorously. Critically, these models fail to capture microbial metabolism, which my lab and others have found central to predicting the ecology of diverse communities. My goal, therefore, is to develop a new theory of microbial ecology, rooted in metabolism, and to rigorously test it. We will capture nutrient competition, cross-feeding, interference competition and phage, and build our framework using methods from statistical mechanics. Throughout, we will experimentally test our theory using the gut microbiota as a model system. We will address three fundamental questions: 1: What determines the composition and stability of communities? Theory will be parameterised with large-scale culturing on defined media, metabolomics and whole-genome metabolic models. We will empirically test our ability to predict composition and ecological stability, and to understand the diversity-stability relationship. 2: What determines ecological success? We will study what makes a strain successful within a community, incorporating metabolism, bacterial warfare, and phage predation. 3: How does the host environment shape microbial ecology? We will employ agent-based simulations to capture spatial structure and test them with a new in-vitro organoid model of the human gut mucosa and our new in-vivo imaging pipeline for mouse microbiomes. Our plans have risk because ecological systems are complex and hard to understand. However, our work promises to deliver a step-change in both ecology and microbiology by making the study of microbial communities a predictive science, where one can understand ahead-of-time how particular sets of species will behave as a system. Furthermore, we will help establish the ecological principles needed to rationally manipulate our own microbiomes.
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.
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology virology
- natural sciences mathematics pure mathematics discrete mathematics mathematical logic
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology
- natural sciences biological sciences biological behavioural sciences ethology biological interactions
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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
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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-2024-ADG
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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.
OX1 2JD Oxford
United Kingdom
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