Dr. Chun-Jun Guo. Credit: Ashley Jones
Scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine, Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco have adapted genome editing tools to function in a common species of intestinal bacteria. With this technological advance, they can now precisely alter the human gut microbes’ production of small molecule metabolites that can affect their host’s metabolism, immune system and nervous system. The technique has revealed a new regulator of mucosal immune function, which operates at the externally facing surfaces that line organs such as the gut and the lungs. It could also form the basis for genetically engineering the gut microbiota to promote human health or treat disease.
Humans and other animals host thriving populations of microbes on and in their bodies. In recent years, investigators have found that these bacteria, viruses and fungi, collectively called the microbiota, exert profound influence on their hosts’ metabolism and disease pathology. The intestinal microbiota are especially diverse, varying from one individual to the next and hosting microbes that produce thousands of small molecules.
“There are many studies addressing associations between the gut microbiota and human diseases,” said Dr. Chun-Jun Guo, an assistant professor of immunology in medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Weill Cornell Medicine and lead author on the new study, published Dec. 13 in Science. Because the gut microbes appear to exert their influence on the host through the various bacterial metabolites they excrete, Dr. Guo and his colleagues wanted to probe these phenomena more thoroughly and understand the underlying mechanisms. “We wanted to develop a technology that allows us to manipulate the level of these bacterial metabolites or genes in vivo so we can directly study their impacts on the host biology,” Dr. Guo said. To read more, click here.