Research
Our Research Aims
Our research program has two broad scientific aims, each addressed through the work of three integrated work packages:
Aim 1: Map the colorectal cancer microbiome
Work Package 1: The microbiome in cancer risk.
Work Package 2: Epidemiological correlates of the colorectal cancer microbiome.
Work Package 3: Mapping the cellular distribution of the colorectal cancer microbiome.
Aim 2: Understand the clinical impact of modulating the colon cancer microbiome
Work Package 4: Model systems to study the colorectal cancer microbiome.
Work Package 5: The interplay between the microbiota and colorectal cancer treatments.
Work Package 6: Novel treatments involving microbiome modulation.
We also have a public-facing objective: to share and disseminate our data, methodologies and concepts with the scientific, medical and patient communities.
This integrated structure of our program is illustrated in the figure on the right.
Areas of research
Our projects are divided into Work Packages (WP), each focusing on a specific research objective described above.
Research Updates
New review about colorectal cancer and the microbiome
In a recent review by Slater Clay and other OPTIMISTICC team members, titled Colorectal cancer: the facts in the case of the microbiota they review...
Metatranscriptomics (“MTX”) is a powerful method for measuring microbial gene expression
Metatranscriptomics (abbreviated "MTX") is a powerful method for measuring the gene expression (functional activity) of many members of a microbial...
BRAF mutation changes the characteristics of colorectal cancers in a mouse model
In a recent publication, the Sears lab showed that introduction of the BRAFV600E mutation into mice colonized with enterotoxigenic Bacteroides...
