Projektdaten

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The alveolar microbiota community and its effect on infection development in a human alveolus-on-a-chip model.

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The healthy lung is subject to a constant level of microbe immigration. The relationship between resident microbiota and this flagship innate response in the lung is poorly understood. Therefore, the lung microbiome has a potential role in the pathogenesis of infection. On the one hand the lung microbiota can modulate inflammatory processes and on the other hand the pathogen can influence the microbiome. The lung is primarily colonized by various phyla, e.g. Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes2. We will define a microbial community consisting of 3-4 bacteria and analyze effects of infection by virulent pathogens, such as Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), influenza A virus and Aspergillus fumigatus. We aim to establish a lung microbiome in the alveolus-on-a-chip model to characterize (1) the effect of the dynamic lung microbiome balance on host defence and (2) the influence of pathogenic organisms on the lung microbiome. The colonized human alveolus-on-chip model consists of tissue resident human macrophages, human alveolar epithelial type II cells with surfactant production, human endothelial cells and a maintained air-liquid-interphase. This project is part of the Excellence Cluster “Balance of the Microverse”.