Microbiota

Diverse communities of symbiotic microorganisms, predominantly bacteria, “Microbiota”, inhabit nearly every surface of the body exposed to the environment, in particular the skin, oral, and gut epithelium. Many studies have shown that microbiota composition, in particular in the intestine, strongly influences disease susceptibility. This applies to multiple inflammatory, metabolic, infectious, and neurodegenerative diseases. The Microbiota group plan to establish the infrastructure required to perform state of the art analysis of the microbiome at the University of Sharjah. In parallel the group will establish a collaborative network of clinicians, microbiologists, geneticists and bioinformaticians. The primary objective is to study the role of Microbiota in the pathogenesis of common diseases in the UAE. Additionally, will study the influence of the host genome on the composition of skin, oral and gut microbiota and how gene-microbiota interactions contribute to the pathogenesis of these diseases. Eventually we aim to identify defined bacterial "probiotic" species and their products for therapy of common diseases in the UAE.

1. Establish state of the art infrastructure for Microbiota research at the University of Sharjah

2. Identification of microbial species associated with common diseases in the UAE

3. Identify host genes interacting with disease-relevant microbial species

4. Perform functional studies in disease models to elucidate the involved pathways

5. Study the potential use of Microbiota as prognostic and diagnostic markers of common human diseases

6. Study the potential use of Microbiota and their products as therapeutic agents

1. Lebeck University Germany

2. New York University, USA