Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

The microbiome consists of trillions of bacteria, viruses and fungi that co-exist with humans in sites such as the intestines, skin, nose and mouth, and is important to most aspects of health. My project will explore links between the microbiome and Parkinson's (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), the two most common neurodegenerative diseases globally. PD leads to loss of motor control and affects 100,000 Canadians. Interestingly, most patients experience constipation and loss of smell years before motor symptoms; these early symptoms take place in the intestines and nose, where microbes are extremely prevalent. Studies of human fecal samples have also shown that PD patients have microbiome abnormalities compared to those without PD. AD is the leading cause of dementia, which affects 400,000 Canadians. Animal studies have found that modifying the microbiome changes the progression of AD, but this has not yet been explored in humans. The first part of my project will compare the microbiome of PD and AD patients versus controls. Patients will be recruited from local clinics at the University of British Columbia, and we will collect samples to analyze the microbiome of their mouth, nose and feces. We will see whether a microbial "signature" exists for each disease and associate microbiome findings with markers of disease severity. Any discoveries will be further explored in the lab to understand the mechanisms connecting microbes to brain diseases. This will include seeing whether different microbes can modify PD/AD symptoms when given to mice, and examining how molecules made by microbes impact cells such as neurons and immune cells. The goal of my research is to provide new understanding of how the microbiome is important in neurodegenerative diseases, and ultimately to work towards non-invasive interventions such as diet changes and carefully-designed probiotics that might help treat or even prevent these diseases.