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SUMMARY:In vitro communities of nasal bacteria as a model for studying com
 munity dynamics and intervention - Babak Momeni (Boston College)
DTSTART:20221014T133000Z
DTEND:20221014T135000Z
UID:TALK179429@talks.cam.ac.uk
DESCRIPTION:By: Sandra Dedrick\, Vaishnavi Warrier\, Katherine P. Lemon\, 
 and Babak Momeni\nDespite the impact of human associated microbiota on our
  health\, there is no systematic approach to sway microbiota composition t
 owards a desired state. Such a systematic approach involves two fundamenta
 l steps: a reliable model capable of predicting microbiota dynamics and an
  intervention scheme that is feasible and effective even when the microbio
 ta is poorly characterized. However\, for most microbiota\, the complexity
  burden&mdash\;the presence of too many interacting species engaged in mos
 tly uncharacterized interactions&mdash\;puts this approach out of reach. A
  promising platform to avoid the above shortcomings is nasal microbiota\, 
 with the unique advantage that it often contains only a handful of dominan
 t species and almost all of those species can be cultivated reliably in th
 e lab. We propose in-vitro communities of nasal bacteria as a model system
  to develop the modeling and control strategies. We show that when the env
 ironment is low-nutrient (i.e.\, when growth is limited by the availabilit
 y of nutrients) and complex (i.e.\, when multiple resources\, rather than 
 a few\, determine growth)\, a simple model for community dynamics can be d
 eveloped. We then assess the effectiveness of intervention&mdash\;using en
 graftment as a target function&mdash\;when the interaction network for the
  microbiota is only partially characterized. In addition to their impact o
 n respiratory health\, insights from in-vitro nasal bacterial communities 
 serve as a stepping stone towards rational control of more complex microbi
 ota.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
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