Doctoral Dissertation Research: Dysbiosis, Health, and Therapeutics in Global Microbiome Science

博士论文研究：全球微生物组科学中的生态失调、健康和治疗

• 批准号: 2341707
• 负责人: Joseph Masco
• 金额: $ 2.19万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-03-15 至 2025-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2341707&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Dysbiosis; Health

In the 21st century, genomic methods of understanding microbes as ecosystems have generated the concept of the microbiome, a term that refers to the combined microorganisms and/or microbial genomes within a given environment. Often, that environment is the human body itself, and these new methods for studying human-associated microbes have resulted in new understandings of microbes’ importance to human health. This study examines how these shifts are changing ideas about how modern life affects human health. It investigates how the emerging field of microbiome science defines healthy and unhealthy human microbiomes, as well as underlying stakes and assumptions in these definitions. Aimed at more ethical and equitable interventions in health at both an individual and a global level, it will contribute empirical data on how microbiome initiatives can more equitably benefit groups that have been historically subjected to extractive research practices. Through publications and educational presentations, this research aims to change the ways that scientists and their clients in government, education, and industry use the microbiome to understand and intervene in the relationships between changing modern environments and human bodies.The study will employ ethnographic fieldwork focusing on global microbiome collection projects and the development of microbial therapeutics in the greater Boston/Cambridge area. In doing so, it asks: How is the development of microbial therapeutics changing contemporary understandings of health? How are human microbiomes designated healthy or unhealthy, and what is the role of therapeutic interventions in making these designations? Preliminary results suggest that high microbial biodiversity is coming to signify a new kind of human health, one associated with both a healthy environment and an idealized premodern relationship to it. The dissertation that emerges from this research will therefore examine the construction of modernity, environment, and the healthy body in microbiome science in order to theorize the effects of anthropogenic environmental change on approaches to human health and quality of life.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在21世纪，将微生物理解为生态系统的基因组学方法产生了微生物组的概念，这个术语指的是特定环境中的组合微生物和/或微生物基因组。通常，环境就是人体本身，这些研究与人类相关的微生物的新方法使人们对微生物对人类健康的重要性有了新的理解。这项研究考察了这些转变是如何改变关于现代生活如何影响人类健康的观念的。它调查了新兴的微生物组科学领域如何定义健康和不健康的人类微生物组，以及这些定义中的潜在利害关系和假设。它的目的是在个人和全球一级对健康采取更符合道德和更公平的干预措施，它将提供经验数据，说明微生物组倡议如何能够更公平地惠及历史上一直受到提取研究做法影响的群体。通过出版物和教育演示，这项研究旨在改变科学家及其政府、教育和工业客户使用微生物组的方式，以了解和干预不断变化的现代环境与人体之间的关系。研究将采用人种学田野工作，重点放在全球微生物组收集项目和大波士顿/剑桥地区微生物疗法的发展。在这样做的过程中，它提出了一个问题：微生物疗法的发展如何改变了当代对健康的理解？人类微生物群如何被指定为健康的或不健康的，治疗干预在做出这些指定时扮演了什么角色？初步结果表明，高度的微生物生物多样性标志着一种新的人类健康，一种与健康的环境和理想化的前现代关系相关联的健康。因此，从这项研究中产生的论文将研究微生物组科学中现代性、环境和健康身体的构建，以便对人类环境变化对人类健康和生活质量方法的影响进行理论分析。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。