Harnessing the social transmission of microbiota to improve health and immunity

致病微生物的社会传播早已被认识到，个人对个人的社交接触最近吸引了许多负面的社会关注，因为它在COVID19大流行期间传播不利微生物方面所起的作用。然而，个体也依赖于许多其他微生物，特别是微生物区系，这些微生物组成了他们的微生物群，现在已知与许多物种的几乎所有方面的健康有关，包括人类。虽然最初的研究主要集中在个人如何塑造自己的微生物群(例如，通过他们的饮食和他们与环境的相互作用)，但现在越来越多地认识到个人之间健康微生物群的社会传播的作用。具体地说，当代研究表明，任何特定个人的微生物群也会受到他们与之有社会接触的个人微生物群的影响。例如，一个众所周知的关于健康微生物区系社会传播重要性的例子是人类的阴道分娩，长期以来，人们一直知道阴道分娩塑造了婴儿的微生物群，并在这方面比剖腹产有各种好处。然而，尽管所有人类婴儿从早期就开始建立微生物群，但最近的发现和新出现的证据越来越多地表明，微生物群的社会传播在出生后很长一段时间内持续，并贯穿个人的整个一生。事实上，社会接触似乎不仅是婴儿从母亲那里获得哪些菌株的微生物区系的主要决定因素，而且也是决定个体在不同生命阶段从广泛的环境/互动伙伴中获得哪些菌株的微生物区系的决定因素，因为有益的微生物随着时间的推移从一个宿主社会传播到另一个宿主。因此，当考虑到传播传染病的社会接触的成本和收益，同时负责传播健康微生物区系时，存在一个重要但相对被忽视的权衡。考虑到通过社会接触获得的一些健康的微生物群也可能有助于提高对同样通过社会接触传播的疾病的免疫力，这一悖论更加突出。这个项目将解决传播不利微生物和健康微生物区系的社会性悖论。该项目旨在产生关于如何利用社会传播造福健康的新见解，特别是在促进个人接触负责提供免疫力和预防社会传播疾病的微生物区系的背景下。该项目将通过在概念上理解社会传播的原因和后果方面的学术专业知识来实现这一点，并将其与基于行业的方法相结合，以在广泛的背景下认识到现实世界对健康和卫生的影响。使用不同的方法，结合具体实验的结果和现实世界大数据分析的结果，将在利用微生物区系的社会传播以改善健康和免疫力方面做出新的重要贡献。该项目将对健康微生物区系的社会传播与真实世界哺乳动物系统中的传染病之间的相互作用，以及个人因素和环境/社会环境如何塑造这种相互作用产生新的理解。它还将结合大规模的观测方法(在社会环境中检查真实世界的数据)和精细的实验(例如，操纵暴露在特定跟踪微生物群中)。因此，它有很大潜力促进对这一主题的基本理解，并在健康和卫生领域产生公认的影响，并有从学术团体到研发组织的广泛受益者。

Social transmission of disease-causing microbes has long been recognised, and individual-to-individual social contact has recently attracted much negative societal attention for its role in spreading disadvantageous microbes during the COVID19 pandemic. Nevertheless, individuals also rely on many other microbes, particularly microbiota, that make up their 'microbiome' which is now known to be linked to almost all aspects of health in many species, including humans. While initial research focussed heavily on how an individual may shape their own microbiome (e.g. through their diet and their interaction with their environment), the role of social transmission of healthy microbiota between individuals is now becoming increasingly recognised. Specifically, contemporary studies suggest that any given individual's microbiome is also influenced by the microbiome of individuals they are in social contact with. For instance, a well-known example of the importance of social transmission of healthy microbiota is vaginal birth in humans, which has long been known to shape the infant microbiome and hold various benefits over C-section birth in this context. Yet, while all human infants begin to build up their microbiome from early life, recent findings and emerging evidence are increasingly pointing towards social transmission of microbiota continuing long after birth, and throughout individuals' entire lives. Indeed, social contact appears to not only be a primary determinant of which strains of microbiota an infant gains from their mother, but also a determinant of which strains of microbiota individuals' gain from social contacts across a broad range of contexts/interaction partners over their different life-stages, as beneficial microbes socially transmit from one host to another over time. Therefore, an important, but relatively neglected, trade-off exists when considering the costs and benefits of social contact for spreading contagious diseases while simultaneously being responsible for transmission of healthy microbiota. This paradox is emphasised even more when considering that some of the healthy microbiota gained through social contact may also be helpful in improving immunity to the diseases also spread by social contact. This project will address the paradox of sociality for spreading both disadvantageous microbes as well as healthy microbiota. The project aims to generate new insights into how social transmission can be exploited to benefit health, particularly in the context of promoting individuals' exposure to microbiota responsible for providing immunity and protection against socially-transmitted diseases. The project will achieve this through drawing on academic expertise in conceptually understanding the causes and consequences of social transmission, and combine this with industry-based approaches to recognising real-world impact for health and hygiene across broad range of contexts. Using varied approaches, combining results from specific experiments with findings from real-world big data analysis, new and important contributions will be made towards harnessing the social transmission of microbiota to improve health and immunity. The project will produce new understanding of the interplay between the social transmission of healthy microbiota and infectious diseases in real-world mammalian systems, as well as how individual factors and environmental/social settings can shape this. It will also combine large-scale observational approaches (examining real-world data in social settings) with fine-scaled experiments (e.g. manipulating exposure to specific tracked microbiota). As such, it holds much potential for advancing fundamental understanding of this topic and also for recognised impact within the fields of health and hygiene, and has a broad range of beneficiaries from academic groups to R&D organisations.