Characterizing the microbiomes of other human niches

 

Our lab has been involved in unravelling the bacterial or fungal composition of different human niches beyond the oral cavity, and identifying the connection between niches. Most of this research has been focused on characterizing the microbiome of human breast milk in health and disease, where we find many oral pathogens in mothers with lactational mastitis, in addition to the classical involvement of Staphylococcus aureus in this pathology. We have also identified that breast milk is a source of bacteria for the newborn's oral cavity and that some beneficial bacteria in breastmilk colonize the respiratory tract, preventing pneumococcal invasive disease. In collaboration with the group of Dr Carmen Muñoz-Almagro at St Joan de Deu Hospital in Barcelona, we are characterizing the respiratory microbiome of infants and together with Dr Eva Martínez-Moragon at Dr Peset's hospital in Valencia, we are identifying new causing agents of pneumonia. In collaboration with Teresa Alarcón at Hospital de la Princesa in Madrid we have also characterized the microbiota of the stomach in the presence or absence of Helicobacter pylori. We are also collaborating with Dr Jesús Cosín at Clinic Hospital in Valencia to study bacterial and fungal communities of gut sections from patients with Crohn's disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Finally, we collaborate with the FOM Institute to characterize bacterial communities in the human eye. These studies of human microbial communities are giving us a holistic view of the human microbiome and their connections, with practical implications. For example, we have shown that bacterial IgA coating patterns in gut samples from 1-month old babies can predict children that will develop asthma years later, and in 2014, in collaboration with Dr M Carmen Collado at IATA-CSIC, we identified a set of bacteria in fecal samples, including Fusobacterium nucleatum, that are good biomarkers of colorectal cancer.

Different yeasts identified in a human breast milk sample, and stained with calcofluor. Photo: Alba Boix.