SEMINAR ; Dr Mauro COSTA-MATTIOLI - Unraveling gut-microbiome-brain interactions

When considering neurological disorders, the focus is often primarily on the brain. Traditional research has concentrated on identifying key brain regions, selective neural circuits, and molecular mechanisms, alongside genetic variants linked to neurological dysfunction. As a result, most therapeutic strategies have been designed to target the brain directly.

However, it's essential to recognize that we are not just carriers of our own genomes; we also host a diverse array of symbiotic microbes that play a crucial role in nearly every aspect of our health and well-being. In our lab, we made the serendipitous discovery that specific gut microbes can significantly influence brain function and behavior in very powerful way.

In this presentation, I will describe our most recent work aimed at unraveling the signals, structures, and mechanisms that govern gut-microbiome-brain interactions. In addition, I will highlight our findings on the potential of a selective microbial-based approach that has shown promising results in preclinical animal models of neurological dysfunction and, more recently, in human studies.

Our research not only provides a novel and holistic perspective on the biology underlying neurological dysfunction, but it also opens the door to innovative, non-invasive microbial-based therapies for neurological disorders, effectively employing the unconventional concept of treating the brain from the gut.