Project description
Nutrition and microbiota at weaning for inflammatory disease prediction
The expansion of microbiota during the weaning of infants following breast milk cessation generates an immune memory, which is important in preventing the development of allergies and chronic inflammatory diseases (such as obesity and inflammatory bowel diseases) later in life. Scientists are studying how and why this is the case. The ERC-funded WePredict project will investigate how microbial and nutritional signatures at weaning predict the susceptibility to develop chronic inflammatory pathologies. The project will use high-throughput sequencing, machine-learning algorithms and special mouse models. The findings will shed light on the biological processes and define the microbial and nutritional signatures at weaning that predict the susceptibility to adult pathology.
Objective
Microbiota dysbiosis is associated with chronic inflammatory diseases such as allergy, inflammatory bowel diseases, cancer and metabolism-related disorders. It has been reported that exposure to microbial and dietary components early in life may program the immune system to develop tolerance or susceptibility to chronic inflammatory diseases with age. We have recently shown that vigorous immune response induced by gut microbiota at weaning, prevents the development and exacerbation of chronic inflammatory diseases in adult mice. Such immune response is termed the “weaning reaction”. Antibiotic exposure and/or excessive fats intake during this critical window dysregulate the weaning reaction and increase the subsequent susceptibility to develop immunopathology. However, our current knowledge of the biological processes underlying the weaning reaction remains largely unknown. Here we aim to determine the biological processes of the weaning reaction and define the microbial and nutritional signatures at weaning that predict the susceptibility to adult pathology. These aims will be assessed using high-throughput sequencing, machine-learning algorithms and axenic and gnotobiotic mice models. Our project will help deciphering how nutrition and microbiota at weaning orchestrate the immune system development and impact adult chronic inflammatory pathologies susceptibility.
Fields of science
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinflammatory diseases
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinegastroenterologyinflammatory bowel disease
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineimmunology
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutrition
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepathology
Programme(s)
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-STG - Starting GrantHost institution
3012 Bern
Switzerland