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Episode 34: New evidence on the virome in gut-brain communication and stress, with Nathaniel Ritz and Thomaz Bastiaanssen

/in Podcast, Season Three /by Laura

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In this episode, the ISAPP hosts discuss a new study on how the gut virome affects the host during stress, with Nathaniel (Nate) Ritz from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, USA and Thomaz Bastiaanssen from APC Microbiome Ireland. The guests give an overview of the microbiota-gut-brain axis, then delve into a new study they led on the virome and its effects on stress responses in mice.

Key topics from this episode:

  • The gut and the brain communicate in various ways, and the microbiota play a role in some of these modes of communication. Various studies use animal models to look at mechanisms that might be applicable to humans.
  • Why would the microbiota affect the human brain? Because we evolved with a ‘background’ of microbes and have relied on them as we evolved. For example, gut microbes produce metabolites the human body is unable to produce by itself.
  • The newly published paper is titled “The gut virome is associated with stress-induced changes in behaviour and immune responses in mice”.
  • Most microbiota-gut-brain axis research to date has looked at the bacterial component of the microbiome, but this misses the bigger context. The virome is the collection of viruses in the gut, mostly consisting of bacteriophages (which infect bacteria in the gut). This study focused on the virome and how it influenced the gut bacteriome as well as host behavior.
  • Bioinformatics challenges exist when working with the virome for several reasons. For one, distinguishing the biology of a bacteriophage from its host can be challenging.
  • The study used a fecal virome transplant: taking a fecal sample, removing the cellular organisms and small particulates so that the bacteriophages were left over, and then concentrating them and administering them. The researchers took this entire virome from a mouse, then transferred it back to the same individual mouse while it was undergoing stress.
  • After stress, differences were seen in the mouse gut bacteriome and virome. The mice had higher anxiety- and depression-like behaviour, plus changes in their immune systems. But after the fecal virome transplant, some of their behaviours were improved.
  • Do the viruses impact the host nervous system directly, or do they only affect the host by way of the bacteriome? This is not fully known, but there appears to be very little interaction of the bacteriophages with the host. 
  • Analysis of the gut bacteriome or virome must respect the compositional nature of the data. The types of measurements used to analyze the microbiome and virome are confounded by compositional effects, and in the field this is not respected as much as it should be.
  • The next step after this study is to explore the changes in microbiome function in the mice, perhaps pinpointing which bacterial groups need to be changed to normalize the mouse behaviours.

Episode links:

About Nathaniel Ritz:

Dr. Nathaniel Ritz completed his PhD in Prof. John Cryan’s lab at APC Microbiome Ireland where he studied the role of the bacteriome and the virome in social and stress-related disorders. His interests lie in elucidating microbiota-host interactions and establishing microbiota causality within the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Nathaniel has recently moved to Seattle, Washington, USA, to join the lab of Dr. Sid Venkatesh as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Systems Biology to further unravel the mechanisms underpinning microbe-host interaction. Outside of the lab, Nathaniel is an avid rock climber, dog walker, and partner to fellow scientist Dr. Minke Nota. More details and current position can be found at https://venkatesh.isbscience.org/

About Thomaz Bastiaanssen:

Dr. Thomaz Bastiaanssen is the lead bioinformatician in Prof. John F. Cryan’s microbiota-gut-brain axis group in Cork, Ireland. He is interested in the ecological dynamics governing host-microbe communication and how this complex interplay can impact human well-being. He will soon transition to a new role at Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands, where he will continue to study the microbiome gut-brain axis. Besides working on multi-omics analyses, he enjoys horror stories, tabletop games and spending time with his wife, son, and corgi. His website can be found at: https://thomazbastiaanssen.github.io/

ISAPP board member Prof. Colin Hill receives Career Achievement Research Award from University College Cork

/in News /by KC

This month, ISAPP board member and former president Professor Colin Hill received a prestigious award from University College Cork (Ireland), where he has worked since 1992: The UCC Career Achievement Research Award. The prize honours leading researchers whose influential work has been recognized globally.

Hill’s research interests lie in molecular microbiology—specifically, issues around infection. His team was the first to discover lacticin 3147 and thuricin CD, two examples of a class of anti-microbials produced by bacteria that kill bacteria. He is also a leading scientist exploring the human virome: his team developed tools for gut virome analysis, performed phage therapy in vivo, and increased the number of known phage genomes by tens of thousands. Hill is the inventor on 23 patents, has published over 570 research articles, and to date, has secured over €25 million worth of research funding. His publications and citations put him in the top 1% of researchers worldwide.

Hill has served on the ISAPP board of directors since 2009, and was president from 2012-2015. He has supported ISAPP’s efforts to advance the science of probiotics through his scientific insights and leadership: he was lead author on the landmark ISAPP consensus paper on probiotics, participated in the recent ISAPP consensus panel on postbiotics, led numerous ISAPP discussion groups during the ISAPP annual meetings, and co-authored 10 ISAPP publications.

Prof. Todd Klaenhammer, who is a founding ISAPP board member, a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and a retired professor from North Carolina State University, says of the award, “This is fantastic and a huge honor for Colin, one that is very well deserved. He has distinguished himself as a leading scientist, with some of the most brilliant work I have seen from anyone who has successfully crossed disciplines—as he has with his work on phage, probiotics, listeria, among others.”

ISAPP’s Executive Science Officer, Dr. May Ellen Sanders, says, “Colin is a rare combination of great scientist, effective leader and engaging person. During his tenure as president, ISAPP really made it onto the global map. It was a productive and really fun three years with him at ISAPP’s helm.”

Hill’s ISAPP colleagues know him for his exceptional curiosity and willingness to push boundaries, and wish him the best of success as he continues his groundbreaking scientific work.