HOW CAN WE FIND NEW WAYS TO TACKLE DISEASE?
The information carried on DNA as genes, expressed and translated into specific protein functions, in microbes to human, in health and disease, all illustrates the complexity of our biological landscape and our understanding of life.
Multi-omics is a field that uses multiple technologies to offer a snapshot in time of any biological system, offering ‘big data’ that allows us to begin to understand this complexity; DNA sequence (genomics), gene expression (transcriptomics), proteins and their function (proteomics) and the ensuing metabolism (metabolomics) in our microbial environments. We overlay this data to offer the highest resolution essential to understand our built environment, health, our microbial world, and those microbes related to disease.
At Northumbria, based around a both regionally and nationally important genomics facility NU-OMICS, we work on a range of funded microbiome sciences projects, understanding its complexity and function. We formed an integral part of the UK’s pandemic response as part of COG-UK and as a UKHSA DNA sequencing resilience site. Over this 2-year period we sequenced over 100,000 SARS-COV-2 genomes. We also developed supporting informatics tools to aid sequencing proficiency, and virulence prediction of new SARS-CoV-2 variants (SPEAR). We have key projects looking at microbial carriage in breastmilk and its role in GI development in preterm infants; the roles of lung and gut microbiota in chronic diseases, including cystic fibrosis and non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis; and mapping the microbiome of our polar regions. As part of the Research England funded ‘Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment’ (HBBE) we have established standardised approaches for microbial sampling of the built environment (surfaces and biomaterials), focussing on new dwellings during build to occupancy, alongside markers of rurality and supportive tools to annotate environmental aspects of microbiomes and other omics samples on a global scale (OMEinfo).
NU-OMICS has supported collaborative research projects with several large companies that utilise microbiome data. These companies include but are not limited to: Proctor & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, GSK, Pepsico, and Pukka Herbs.
ACADEMIC LEAD
Professor Darren Smith
