Clinical Research Training Fellow in Dermatology
PhD student in Molecular and Systems Biology
Lecturer in Host-Microbiome Interactions
Candida-induced metabolic reprogramming of epithelial cells
Candida albicans is a very interesting fungus that can be both a commensal and pathogenic organism, depending on the mucosal environmental conditions (immune status, etc). In the oral cavity, epithelial cells come into direct contact with the fungus and its recognition drives activation of signalling pathways and immune responses in the epithelium. These responses induce a series of changes in epithelial cells that impact on their interaction with the fungus. We apply molecular and cellular biology techniques, as well as multi-omic data sets, to investigate the ability of C. albicans to drive changes in cellular metabolism that boost epithelial immune responses. Further, we investigate how these shifts potentially initiate the development of long-term responses (e.g. innate immune memory) by epithelial cells in response to C. albicans.
Investigating the oral resistome and mobilome
The heightened public awareness of the serious medical issues we face due to antimicrobial resistance has highlighted our need for better understanding of how genes involved in this process are distributed and spread in our microbial communities. The current rise in high throughput DNA sequencing has also given rise to an ever-increasing amount of information about the genes in different microbial communities. Our group is taking advantage of this to interrogate these data sets and determine the profile of antimicrobial resistance genes in the microbial communities at different body sites. Further, we are also developing computational methods that allow us to interrogate these data sets to identify the profile of mobile genetic elements, such as bacterial viruses, that allow antimicrobial resistance genes to be swapped between different microbial species. In doing so, we are developing the first real picture of how antimicrobial resistance changes within different communities, what the impact of different drug regimens are, and how readily these genes can be swapped within a microbial community.
Microbial involvement in inflammatory skin disease
Inflammatory skin diseases such as dandruff, atopic dermatitis and psoriasis affect a significant proportion of the population. Given their highly visible nature, they carry profound functional, psychological and social impacts. Defects in the skin barrier enable environmental components to penetrate the epidermis, trigger or modulate an immune response and stimulate or suppress inflammation. Microbes are thought to play a significant role in this process. Our group is investigating the role of microbes in modulating the responses associated with a variety of these skin conditions. To do this, we look at interactions between skin and microbes thought to induce (e.g. Staphylococcus aureus and Malassezia spp) or suppress these conditions. To do this, we use a combination of omics techniques to reveal the underlying global events that occur during these interactions, as well as investigating specific immune and metabolic events in epithelial and immune cells, as well as microbes during these interactions.
- An analysis of the skin meta-transcriptome, metabolome and single-cell host transcriptome in S. aureus-colonised atopic dermatitis. Sanofi iAward £75,000. Flohr, C. (PI), Moyes DL, Alexander, A, Tsoka, S, Shoaie, S.
- e-HoMIniCS - elucidation of Host Microbiome Interactions in Cosmetic Skin: BBSRC-LINK/Unilever £1,100,000. Moyes DL (PI), Shoaie, S.
- Modelling host-microbiome interactions on the skin. Unilever. Moyes DM (Co-PI), Shoaie, S (Co-PI), 18/06/18 – 17/01/19, £77,721
- The role of pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus strains and the skin commensal microbiome on immunological responses in atopic dermatitis. Flohr, C. (PI), Moyes, DL, Tsokas, S, Alexander, H. 01/01/2018 – 31/12/21, £511,414
- Host and fungal regulation of Type 17 immunity to oral candidiasis, NIH (R37DE022550). Gaffen SL (PI), Bruno, VM, Kolls, JK, McGeachy MJ, Moyes DL, Naglik, JR, Chi H, 08/2017 - 07/2022 £2.26 M.
Program director for the MSc in Microbiome in Health and Disease
In the post-human genome project world, it has become clear that our health is dependent on more than just our genes. The current age of high throughput sequencing has revealed to us the amazing complexity and extent of the microbial communities that reside within or upon us. Moreover, we are now beginning to understand just how dynamic the interactions between the host and members of these communities are. These interactions are diverse, and the variations in these communities observed between individuals are dependent on a multitude of different microbial and host factors, including diet and inflammatory status. More importantly, it is becoming clear that different disease states are linked to significant changes in the make-up of these communities.
There is thus an urgent need to develop scientists that understand both the computational analysis of the huge data sets that are generated as we analyse microbial communities, as well as being able to interpret these findings in the context of human and microbial health. This new MSc programme aims to train the next generation of scientists to be able to design and analyse studies to investigate our interactions with our microbiome. In doing so, it will help define the next paradigm for host-microbe interactions that will make possible the development of different approaches to health and disease.
MSc in Microbiome in Health and Disease
Saeed Shoaie
Julian Naglik
Jane Setterfield
Mandeep Ghuman
Carsten Flohr
Avijit Banerjee
Peter Mullany (UCL)
Colin Hill (APC, University of Cork)
David Gomez-Cabrerro (Navarre Biomed)
Sarah Gaffen (University of Pittsburgh)
Unilever
Sanofi