Leading scientists exploring the complex and important influence of resident microbes on human health will gather in Eugene this week to discuss new research that could one day lead to new medical treatments.
Hosted by the UO’s META Center for Systems Biology, the conference will run Aug. 5-7 and bring about 175 researchers and students to the Hilton Eugene conference center. The theme for the gathering is “Host-Microbe Systems: Models to Medicine.”
The conference will focus on the animal models researchers use to better understand the bacteria and other microorganisms that reside in the animal gut and influence many biological functions. Known as a microbiome, this microbe community can be studied using animals such as the zebrafish, which the UO pioneered as a model organism to ultimately better understand human biology and disease.
“We’ve made strides in understanding these systems and we’re thinking about how can we take that knowledge and apply it to human health,” said Karen Guillemin, a professor of biology in the UO’s Department of Biology and Institute of Molecular Biology who also serves as director of the META Center. “We really wanted to push ourselves to be thinking about the translational applications.”
META stands for Microbial Ecology and Theory of Animals. The UO’s META Center, one of a handful of nationally recognized centers around the country, does groundbreaking research on how animals, including humans, and their associated microbes function as systems.
The opening keynote speaker at this year’s symposium is Sarkis Mazmanian, a medical microbiologist from the California Institute of Technology, who will discuss how hosts and their microbiomes interact in neurological diseases. Guillemin said research examining how gut microbes affect the immune system and regulate the brain system is a growing area of interest.
Eric Pamer, a physician scientist from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who studies immune responses to infection by microbes, will give the closing keynote address on the role of microbes in fighting intestinal infection.
Organizers made an attempt to include more clinicians in this year’s symposium. Guillemin said research emerging from clinical settings reinforces the notion that microbiome diversity is tied to better results in medical treatments.
Other sessions include a talk by UO biologist Judith Eisen on how microbiota in zebrafish affect behavior and brain development and a discussion by Robert Martindale, a surgeon at Oregon Health & Science University who specializes in digestive health and the use of probiotics in surgical practice.
Probiotics will be on the menu as well as the presentation schedule. Eugene-based Nancy’s Yogurt once again will be handing out free yogurt at the event.
Gut microbes represent an area of shared interest for the conference and for the yogurt maker, which was the first to introduce yogurt made with probiotic cultures to a mainstream market. Nancy Hamren, the company’s namesake and a food microbiologist, has been a regular at the symposium.
Undergraduates will again be featured at the symposium as part of the META Center’s training and outreach initiatives through the Alaska Oregon Research Training Alliance. The program builds on ties with the University of Alaska to provide opportunities for Native Americans and Alaska Natives to participate in an intensive summer research program at the UO and present their results at symposium poster sessions.
The UO’s META Center is part of the National Centers for Systems Biology, which is supported by the National Institutes of Health to pursue an integrated approach in biomedical research using physical, computational and experimental sciences to understand complex biological systems. It is home to a multidisciplinary team of researchers examining how animal-associated microbial communities assemble, interact, evolve and influence human health and disease.
—By Lewis Taylor, University Communications