Research summary
The health of your gut is closely connected to the tiny organisms that live inside it. These organisms are collectively called microbiota (or your microbiome)—and more than 20 million Canadians suffer from digestive disorders in which these gut microbiota are implicated. Interactions between the human body and its microbiota affect abiotic (non-living) factors in the gut, like acidity, temperature, oxygen levels and more. In turn, changes in the gut environment due to disease dramatically affect gut bacteria. But unfortunately, we know little about how these changes work.
As Canada Research Chair in Quantitative Microbiota Biology for Health Applications, Dr. Carolina Tropini is studying the connections between the gut microbiota, gut microenvironment and disease. She and her research team are trying to identify the mechanisms that underlie bacterial survival or constrain bacterial species within altered abiotic environments. Ultimately, their work will support the bioengineering of next-generation treatments based on microbiota.