Fundamental Biological Factors Underlying Human Performance: From Molecular Diagnostics and Detection to Behavior and Systems Biology

In collaboration with researchers at MIT (Lauffenburger) and ERDC (Perkins, Vinas) we are using zebrafish as a model organism for studying gut microbiome-brain interactions, with a focus on how the chemistry of the gut microbiome affects organism behavior, including sleep patterns and stress. Zebrafish provide an outstanding platform due to their maturity as a model organism as well as their transparent state as an embryo, allowing imaging of gut microbes and other biological features.

Current participants: Additional participants:

Collaborators: Past participants: Samuel Clamons (Alumni, BE) Mark Prator (Alumni, EAS) Andrey Shur (Alumni, BE)

Objectives

Caltech's portion of the project focuses on two primary tasks:

1. The influence of gut microbiome on brain function: Diagnostics and logging of microbiotic environments in organisms
2. The influence of gut microbiome/brain interactions on the systems biology of performance

References

• Analysis of Circuits for Dosage Control in Microbial Populations. Sophie J. Walton, Samuel E. Clamons, Richard M. Murray. Senior thesis.

Agency: Army Research Laboratory Grant number:

Start date: 1 Jan 2019 End date: 30 Dec 2021

Support: 1 postdoc, 2 graduate students, research technician Reporting: