Replacement for Anaerobic Workstations

肠道环境中有大量的细菌和病毒，形成稳定的群落。最近的几项研究表明，这些细菌和病毒群落的变化与某些健康状况有关。细菌和病毒也以多种方式调节肠道免疫系统，但它们这样做的机制仍然知之甚少。因此，了解细菌及其相关病毒如何相互作用以及它们如何影响宿主的生理学和免疫学非常重要。 肠道的大部分通常是无氧的。因此，许多重要的肠道细菌不能在氧气存在的情况下生长，即使是微量的氧气也往往对它们有毒。因此，如果我们想研究细菌和病毒对肠道微生物群落和宿主免疫力的作用和影响，那么在完全没有氧气的情况下培养细菌和病毒的能力至关重要。实现这一点的最佳方法是使用特殊的橱柜，其中的空气用特殊气体严格控制，以去除任何微量氧气。这些橱柜配备了手套端口，允许将手臂插入内部以操纵细菌，而不会将它们暴露在致命的氧气中。申请人目前进行的研究计划需要每天使用这种柜来培养细菌，分离和繁殖感染它们的病毒，并处理粪便样品以分离氧气对其具有高毒性的特定肠道细菌。 该应用程序的目标是更换两个12和14岁的橱柜，这些橱柜要么是坏的，不可修复的，要么是由于十多年的密集使用而严重磨损的。我们的旧橱柜是唯一的可供研究的健康校园在美国。舍布鲁克因此，涉及仅在无氧条件下生长的微生物的研究完全取决于这些橱柜。如果不能取代它们，将对我们的研究计划产生灾难性的后果。它还将严重损害依赖这些设备的当地和国际合作。在过去的15年里，我们的橱柜允许培训超过50名研究生和本科生以及研究专业人员。它还允许发表一些自然科学和工程方面的研究文章。在加拿大，研究肠道病毒和宿主先天免疫的研究小组相对较少，因此申请人追求的研究计划非常重要。研究成果将有助于解决基本的生物学问题，这将有利于加拿大人口以及更广泛的科学界。

The gut environment hosts an impressive number of bacteria and viruses that form stable communities. Several recent studies have shown that changes in these bacterial and viral communities are associated with certain health conditions. Bacteria and viruses also modulate the intestinal immune system in multiple ways, but the mechanisms by which they do this are still poorly understood. It is therefore important to understand how bacteria and their associated viruses interact with each other and how they can affect the physiology and immunology of their host. Most parts of the intestinal tract are generally exempt of oxygen. Consequently, many important gut bacteria cannot grow in the presence of oxygen, which is often toxic to them even in trace amounts. The capacity to grow bacteria and viruses in total absence of oxygen is therefore crucial if we want to investigate their role and impact on intestinal microbial communities and host immunity. The best way to achieve this is by using special cabinets within which the air is tightly controlled with special gases to remove any trace oxygen. These cabinets are equipped with glove ports that allow insertion of the arms inside to manipulate bacteria, without exposing them to lethal oxygen. The research programs currently conducted by the applicants require the daily use of such cabinets to grow bacteria, to isolate and propagate viruses infecting them, and to process fecal samples to isolate specific gut bacteria for which oxygen is highly toxic. The goal of this application is to replace two 12 and 14 years old cabinets that are either broken and not repairable, or heavily worn because of intensive usage for more than a decade. Our old cabinets are the only ones available for research on the health campus at U. Sherbrooke. Therefore, research involving microorganisms that grow only in absence of oxygen totally depends on these cabinets. Failure to replace them will have disastrous consequences on our research programs. It will also heavily impair local and international collaborations that depend on this equipment. Our cabinets allowed training of >50 graduate and undergraduate students as well as research professionals over the last 15 years. It also allowed publication of several research articles in natural sciences and engineering. There are relatively few research groups in Canada that study gut viruses and host innate immunity and the research programs pursued by the applicants are therefore highly important. The research outcome will help resolve fundamental biological questions that will benefit the Canadian population as well as the broader scientific community.