Funding tool: Basic research projects
Project-ID: LS11-008
Project start: 01. Oktober 2012
Project end: will follow
Runtime: 36 months / finished
Funding amount: € 297.000,00

Brief summary:

Evidence is accumulating that the gut microbiota is involved in the pathogenesis of obesity and associated
metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. This opens up new strategies of medical and pharmaceutical
intervention that modify the gut microbial community (e.g. by use of antibiotics, prebiotics and probiotics) or
use the human microbiota as a diagnostic tool in health surveillance. As a pre-requisite for utilizing human
microbiota for maintaining and improving health, the proposed project strives to improve our understanding
of the normal range of microbiota diversity. We will compare the phylogenetic and functional characteristics
of the "lean" versus "obese" microbiota in three different age groups, including children, young adults, and
seniors. 16S rRNA-based bacterial community profiling aims at identifying specific phylogenetic signatures,
while a whole genome-based comparison shall identify functional gene markers of the overweight versus normal weight phenotype. Then, the MicrObes project will highlight relationships between the microbiota community composition and clinical markers associated with metabolic disorders as well as with diet and life style traits.

Keywords:
human microbiota, obesity, bacterial community analysis, T-RFLP analysis, qPCR