Grant: Emerging Team Grant: Canadian Microbiome Initiative - Full Application

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is the most common fatal genetic disease among individuals of European descent. One out of every 2500 babies are born with the disease, and 1 of 25 individuals carry a recessive CF allele. The most common cause of death for CF patients is due to respiratory problems associated with repeated episodes of bacterial infection of the airways. We will characterize the composition and dynamics of the microbial communities found in the CF lung during the progression of the disease and the initiation of antibiotic treatment via metagenomics and novel next-generation-genomics approaches. Our long-term goal is to establish guide-lines to assist clinicians in the design and selection of therapies tailored for individual patients based on their clinical status and the specific nature of the infectious community. We will do this via a longitudinal study focused on characterizing the community of bacteria, fungi, and viruses (bacteriophages) infecting the CF lung. We will also study much finer level population dynamics of two key bacterial and one fungal species commonly associated with clinical exacerbations, and monitor metabolic diversity and integron-associated antibiotic resistance through directed sequencing and genome sampling of total DNA isolated from the CF lung via and next-generation genomic sequencing.