VUB bioengineer and doctor in microbiology, Doris Vandeputte, aims to tackle the Campylobacter bacterium over the next five years. This bacterium causes severe diarrhoea and is responsible for the deaths of around one hundred thousand young children worldwide each year. The condition, Campylobacteriosis, is typically contracted through the consumption of undercooked chicken. Since individuals have varying levels of susceptibility to the infection, Vandeputte intends to investigate whether a person’s unique gut microbiota offers better protection for some than others. The ultimate goal is to develop an effective treatment against the infection.
“If ten people at a barbecue eat undercooked chicken, on average, 8 to 9 of them will experience some degree of diarrhoea, while one or two may not be affected at all,” Vandeputte explains. “My hypothesis is that an individual’s unique gut flora can offer a certain level of protection against the infection. Each person’s gut contains around fifty to one hundred and fifty different species of bacteria. When considering the gut microbiota across the entire population, there are about a thousand types of gut bacteria. Thus, each of us not only has a diverse set of bacteria in our intestines, but these are also present in different proportions, with varying dominant species for each person.”
Currently, acute bacterial intestinal infections with Campylobacter are typically treated with antibiotics. In young children, such infections can cause growth delays and, in severe cases, even death. With increasing antibiotic resistance, scientists need to find effective alternatives, which Vandeputte hopes to uncover in our intestines.
Traditionally, researchers have approached this issue from two angles: a human-centred approach, focusing on the host's immune system, or a pathogen-centred approach, studying variations in bacterial strains. “With CoRe Defense, I advocate for a paradigm shift, opting for a microbiota-focused perspective. I aim to use computational models and laboratory experiments to identify which bacteria in the gut protect us against infections and which do not, as well as to understand the mechanisms through which certain bacteria prevent others from colonising the gut and causing illness. The premise is that some individuals have bacteria that compete with Campylobacter, either by using the same nutrients or by producing substances that hinder Campylobacter's growth in the gut.”
“Despite their enormous potential to prevent and treat bacterial infections, microbial alternatives to antibiotics remain scarce,” Vandeputte concludes. “Currently, we lack adequate methods for selecting potential candidates, and that is something I aim to change.”
For her research, titled CoRe Defense: Fortifying the resident gut microbiota’s colonisation resistance to combat intestinal bacterial infections, Vandeputte, who will soon become a professor at the VUB, has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant from the European Commission worth 2 million euros. The project will run for five years, starting in January 2025.*
**This is a machine translation. We apologise for any inaccuracies.