Think Tank 4

Modelling the Microbial Oral Community

Description:
This think tank will aim at a better understanding of microbial interactions in complex communities focusing on (weak-) acid stress resistance and the role that acid stress plays in proliferation of e.g. pathogenic species as the yeast Candida, during infections (host[environment]/pathogen interactions). The main challenge is to go from kinetic models to stochastic models describing the microbial oral communities (1) followed by the same cycle in the host (2). The outcome of the latter should then feed in an iterative cycle, leading to an improved kinetic microbial community model for e.g. the oral cavity or the gut in the presence and absence of antimicrobial compounds used in health care. One of the applications sought in our proposal lies in the relation between general health and uncontrollable oral infections in immune-compromised and elderly patients. The development of cellular and ecological models for microbial growth in relation to polymicrobial infections and patient predisposition is the challenge. Similar approaches should be applicable in other areas of systems biology research where genotype and phenotype of mixed species biofilms meet (i.e. industrial biofilms, microbial food safety). The outcome of this think tank would be a project proposal in which ACTA and SILS-MBMFS collaborate with industrial antimicrobial providers and (likely) TNO to investigate the oral microbial community. The latter with a specific, genome-based detection (oral status) chip. Another outcome may be a review of the field. The approach should illustrate how systems biology can be turned into application oriented studies.

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