MicrobiomE-associaTEd boosters Of immune Responses (METEOR study): experimental charac-terization and clinical exploitation.

I became fascinated by pathogen-host interactions at the end of my PhD, working with Hepatitis C virus, and later in my first postdoctoral phase working with Influenza A and SARS-2 viruses, when I learned the OMIC technologies power. Finally, I found out about the world of microbiota-associated interactions and how Dr.

Serrano’s studies unveiled these complex networks with a clinical perspective. Most microbiota studies are based on the description of the different bacterial species profiles.

How-ever, the interactions between the byproducts derived from cells and bacteria can affect reciprocally to host and microbial metabolism, modifying the outcome of the disease.

With my expertise on experi-mental settings, Dr Serrano’s clinical-research view, and the strong collaborations with expert partners in bioinformatics and multi-omics, for my next career step I aim to develop experimental strategies to better identify new potential therapeutic agents.

Specifically, to clinically exploit MIcrobiome-associated BOosters of Immune responses to infectious Diseases (MIBOIDs) that define the nature of the host-microbiota interaction I will implement a protocol based on directed culturomics, immune stimulations assays, bacterial species description and multi-omic toolbox to characterize the functional immune profiles associated with highly protective immune responses, and data mining through a mul-tiparametric bioinformatic integration approach.

We aim to test several conditions such as describing gut microbiota from different compartments, microbial communities from localized disease-related tissues, and to describe the most functionally relevant.

Finally, after the production and validation of the specific candidates in vitro, this project will lead to future validation in preclinical and clinical studies to get specific MIBOIDs to be exploited as therapeutic agents aimed at improving disease-specific immune responses, prevention and cure for several diseases.