Engineering Microbial Consortia using Bio-enabled Mucus Matrices

Mucus lines all wet epithelia in the body, including the mouth, lungs, and digestive tracts. We have developed model test systems with purified mucin polymers, the gel-forming constituents of mucus and showed that the mucus environment significantly impacts the physiology of microbes, including quorum sensing, the expression of virulence genes, and biofilm formation. We will leverage this 3-D mucus model with native communities to determine the role of mucus in establishing microbial diversity and function. This versatile mucus model lays the foundation for strategies to modulate and stabilize microbial communities in the body, with the goal to enhance soldier performance.

Given the high relevance of gut health for soldiers and the significant scientific overlapping interest in this research area with our collaborators in the Army, we intend to substantially expand our work on microbial communities to identify how mucus and specifically mucin derived glycans, select and stabilize the resident microbiota in the gastrointestinal tract. Understanding how mucus regulates prevalent gut commensals will yield new insights into how the body selects for and maintains a healthy microbiome and has the potential to inform novel therapeutic strategies that stabilize gut communities against imbalances driven by the internal and environmental stressors commonly faced by soldiers. This investigation aligns well with the interest of the Army in improving medical readiness and to optimize human performance of soldiers.