The trillions of commensal (non-harmful) microbes that live in and on our bodies contain a hundred fold more unique genes than we harbor within our own genomes. Recent work has shown that many of these microbial genes are essential to the proper functioning of our bodies, with almost half of all metabolites in human blood significantly associated with variation in the ecology of the gut. This metabolic cross-talk between our microbes and our bodies extends to all organ systems, including the central nervous system. There has been an explosion of research into the two-way communication between the gut microbiota and the brain, which has helped us to understand complex behavioral and neurophysiological phenotypes in many animal species. This year’s course and symposium are dedicated to exploring the gut-brain axis.
ISB hosted a series of events in October of 2024 that leveraged data sets from neuropsychiatric cohorts to better understand the metabolic interplay between the human gut microbiome and the central nervous system in health and disease.
ISB hosted a two-day course on October 16 & 17, 2024, followed by a symposium on October 18, 2024. Both events were virtual and free. The intended audience for these events are graduate students, postdocs, principal investigators, industry scientists, educators, clinicians, or any other variety of microbiome-curious person from across the globe.
On October 16 & 17, 2024 at 9 a.m., we will provide a two-day, intensive course designed to enable novice microbiome researchers to get up-to-speed with amplicon sequencing data processing and analyses. We will introduce a powerful microbial community-scale metabolic modeling approach developed at ISB.
On October 18, 2024 at 9 a.m., we will host a symposium, featuring six prominent microbiome researchers working to broaden the scope of microbiome research by focusing on the gut-brain axis.
This year our sponsor, Applied Microbiology International, offered free memberships to anyone that registers and attends the event. Explore their website and make sure to check the box to opt in when you register.
Course participants will need to register in order to receive a Zoom link and an invitation to the course's Slack account. Lectures will be given in Zoom and real-time tutorials will be monitored by teaching assistants via Slack. Thus, participants will need to install both Zoom and Slack prior to the start of the course. Presentations and course materials can be accessed on the course's GitHub repository. Course presentations can be viewed on a web browser (smartphone compatible). Course tutorials will be run in Jupyter notebooks within Google Colab, which provides all participants with free computational resources, but will also require everyone to sign up for a Google account (if they do not already have one). The first half of the course will be run using Quantitative Insights Into Microbial Ecology 2 (QIIME2). The second half of the course will involve using a metabolic modeling tool called MICOM to infer gut microbial community function. Participants are encouraged to develop a basic familiarity with Zoom, Slack, and Jupyter notebooks prior to the course.
| Time | Talk | Info | Additional Materials |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09:00 | Introductory remarks by Sean Gibbons, PhD | Webinar via Zoom | |
| 09:30 - 11:00 | Analyzing amplicon sequencing data with Qiime 2, Part 1 Instructor: Alyssa Easton |
Webinar via Zoom | Slides Notebook |
| 11:00 - 11:20 | Break | Live chat and Q&A via Slack | |
| 11:20 - 12:20 | Analyzing amplicon sequencing data with Qiime 2, Part 2 Instructor: Alyssa Easton |
Webinar via Zoom | Slides Notebook |
| 12:20 - 12:45 | Break | Webinar via Zoom | |
| 12:45 - 1:30 | Presenter: Jacob Cavon Talk title: Using wearables data to look at the relationship between the gut microbiome and sleep. |
Webinar via Zoom | |
| 1:30 - 1:40 | Closing remarks by Sean Gibbons, PhD | Webinar in Zoom | |
| 1:40 | Work on project (get help on Slack) | Live chat and Q&A via Slack |
| Time | Talk | Info | Additional Materials |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09:00 | Introductory remarks by Sean Gibbons, PhD | Webinar via Zoom | |
| 09:30 - 11:00 | Microbial community-scale metabolic models.
Instructor: Alex Carr |
Webinar via Zoom | Slides Notebook |
| 11:00 - 11:20 | Break | Live chat and Q&A via Slack | |
| 11:20 - 12:20 | Metabolic models and the gut-brain axis.
Instructor: Alex Carr |
Webinar via Zoom | Slides Notebook |
| 12:20 - 12:30 | Closing remarks by Sean Gibbons, PhD | Webinar via Zoom | |
| 12:40 | Work on project (get help on Slack) | Live chat and Q&A via Slack |
| Time | Talk/Session | Info |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 – 09:15 | Welcoming remarks by Sean Gibbons, PhD | Webinar via Zoom |
| 09:15 – 11:00 | Session One: Early Life: Nutrition and the Developing Brain | |
| 09:15 – 09:45 | Elena Coley-O'Rourke, PhD Talk title: Malnutrition and the developmental gut-brain axis |
Webinar via Zoom |
| 09:45 – 10:15 | Sid Venkatesh, PhD Talk title: Microbiome-targeted dietary regimens to combat pediatric undernutrition |
Webinar via Zoom |
| 10:15 – 10:45 | Panel Discussion: Chaired by Crystal Perez | Webinar via Zoom |
| 10:45 – 11:00 | Break | |
| 11:00 – 12:30 | Session Two: Stress, Anxiety, and Depression | |
| 11:00 – 11:30 | Nathaniel Ritz, PhD Talk title: Stress gone viral: gut bugs that can impact behavior in preclinical models |
Webinar via Zoom |
| 11:30 – 12:00 | Hannah Holscher, PhD Talk title: Dietary and microbial connections to mood and cognition |
Webinar via Zoom |
| 12:00 – 12:30 | Panel Discussion: Chaired by Jacob Cavon | Webinar via Zoom |
| 12:30 – 12:45 | Break | |
| 12:45 – 2:15 | Session Three: Neurodegeneration | |
| 12:45 – 1:15 | Priyanka Baloni, PhD Talk title: Identifying host and microbiome derived metabolic signatures associated with Alzheimer’s disease |
Webinar via Zoom |
| 1:15 – 1:45 | Yunguang Qiu, PhD Talk title: Systematic multi-omics landscape between gut microbial metabolites and GPCRome in Alzheimer’s disease |
Webinar via Zoom |
| 1:45 – 2:15 | Panel Discussion: Chaired by Noa Rappaport, PhD | Webinar via Zoom |
| 2:15 – 2:30 | Closing remarks by Sean Gibbons, PhD | Webinar via Zoom |
