Dr. Mike Taylor (University of Auckland)

Invited guest speaker at the Biology Center of the Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel

Thursday, August 23^rd 2018, 16:15

 ZMB
Conference room 4^th floor
Am Botanischen Garten 11

As guest of the CRC 1182

Dr. Mike Taylor

(University of Auckland, New Zealand)

Talks about:

“The airway microbiota in health and disease”

Abstract:

The airway microbiota is an under-explored microbial community relevant to both health and disease.  While a microbial role is likely in many airway diseases, the exact nature of the host-microbe interaction often remains unclear.  I will present two lines of recent research from my lab: (1) the microbiome in adults with chronic sinus disease, and (2) the paediatric lung microbiota in non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis.  Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a common, debilitating condition characterised by long-term inflammation of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses.  It affects ~5% of adults and annual treatment costs associated with CRS exceed US$8.6 billion in the USA alone.  Our data suggest that, rather than a simple one pathogen, one disease model, CRS may be associated with a breakdown, or dysbiosis, of the entire microbial community.  Such a shift in microbiota composition may in turn drive an exacerbated and ongoing inflammatory response.  By contrast, the diversity of the lung microbiota in children with non-CF bronchiectasis appears to be largely retained, at least at the point of disease diagnosis.  I will present results derived from 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, immunological assays and ecological network analyses, and will discuss potential clinical implications of our findings.