Modeling host-microbe interactions in the intestinal ecosystem

沿着沿着肠道的长度，单层上皮细胞将我们与外部环境隔开。在这里，我们的细胞和肠道中的细菌（称为微生物群）之间的平衡相互作用促进了食物的正确消化，并保护我们免受入侵细菌的感染。我们的细胞和微生物群之间的这种平衡被破坏会导致炎症，但我们通常可以从这些扰动中恢复并重新获得适当的平衡。事实上，微生物群很好地适应了这些波动，并通常恢复其促进健康的功能;然而，它们如何恢复以及控制这种平衡恢复的过程还没有得到很好的理解。许多慢性炎症性疾病的特征是我们的细胞和微生物群之间的这种平衡的长期变化，并且与削弱肠道保护屏障的遗传缺陷有关。因此，我的目标是了解肠道细菌如何相互作用，我们的宿主细胞如何对常驻细菌做出反应以保持健康的平衡，并发现某些个体的这些遗传缺陷如何使其无法正确反应并恢复肠道内的正常平衡。这些见解在维持肠道健康和了解导致疾病的因素方面对科学界和公众都非常感兴趣。

Along the length of the intestinal tract, a single layer of epithelial cells separates us from the outer environment. Here, balanced interactions between our cells and the bacteria that reside in our gut, known as the microbiota, promote the proper digestion of food and also protect us from infection with invading bacteria. Disruption of this balance between our cells and the microbiota results in inflammation, yet we can normally recover from these perturbations and re-gain a proper balance. Indeed, the microbiota are well adapted to these fluctuations and generally recover their health-promoting functions; however, how they recover and the processes that govern this restoration of balance are not well understood. Many chronic inflammatory diseases are characterized by prolonged shifts in this balance between our cells and microbiota and are linked to genetic deficiencies that weaken the protective barrier in the intestine. My goal, therefore, is to understand how gut bacteria interact with each other, how our host cells react to the resident bacteria to maintain a healthy balance and to discover how these genetic deficiencies in some individuals make then unable to react properly and recover the normal balance within the intestine. These insights are of great interest to both the scientific community and the general public in the context of maintaining intestinal health and understanding factors contributing to disease.