How Does Salivary Flow and Chemistry Impact the Oral Cavity in Health and Disease?
Saliva is essential for maintaining a healthy oral environment. It helps wash away food particles, buffers against acids in the mouth, delivers antimicrobial molecules, and supports the balance of microbes that live in the mouth. When salivary flow or chemistry changes the oral ecosystem can shift in ways that increase the risk of tooth decay, gum disease, and other health problems.
Our research investigates how differences in salivary flow, composition, and immune activity influences the oral microbiome and its interactions with the host immune system. This work will help to identify mechanisms linking oral microbiome imbalance to diseases and may ultimately lead to new strategies for prevention and treatment.
The Effect of Daily and Habitual Diet on the Human Microbiome
The human mouth is home to a complex microbial ecosystem that plays a critical role in both oral and overall health. Imbalances in this community are linked to tooth decay, gum disease, and even systemic conditions like heart disease and Alzheimer’s. While diet is known to influence other microbiomes – such as those in the gut – its impact on oral microbes remains poorly understood.
Our research explores how daily and long-term dietary habits affect the composition and activity of oral bacteria and fungi. Using advanced sequencing techniques, we aim to uncover connections between what we eat and the composition and behavior of these microbial communities. By clarifying these relationships, our work could pave the way for better dietary strategies to promote oral and systemic health.
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Decoding Microbial Activity in Complex Ecosystems
Metatranscriptomics allows us to study how microbes behave in their natural environments by analyzing their gene expression. This approach reveals not only what microbes are present, but also how they function – unlocking insights into their roles in health and disease. However, the methods for analyzing these complex datasets are still underdeveloped.
Our research in this area focuses on developing computational methods to untangle these complex signals. By accounting for variations in microbial ecosystems, and correcting intrinsic errors in our data introduced during sequencing and analysis, we can better interpret gene expression data and identify critical regulatory patterns. Ultimately, this work aims to uncover how microbes fine-tune their functions to support health, paving the way for targeted microbiome-based interventions.
Recent publications:
- Heterogeneous lineage-specific arginine deiminase expression within dental microbiome species. AE Mann, B Chakraborty, LM O’Connell, MM Nascimento, RA Burne, VP Richards. Microbiology Spectrum. 2024
Modeling Human Evolution and Global Demographic Changes Over Time
Modern human populations carry the genetic signature of our recent and distant evolutionary pasts. Demographic events including ancient introgression events with extinct hominin groups, periods of isolation and expansion, and changing environmental pressures are all recorded in patterns of human genetic variation seen today.
Our research in this area combines population genetics theory and computational modeling to reconstruct key events in human evolutionary history. Current projects in this area include ancient introgression events in Pleistocene hominins and the consequences of founder effects in small isolated populations. By combining genomic data analysis with statistical modeling techniques, we aim to better understand how these events have shaped human genetic diversity.