Project:

Assessing the role of the estrobolome and microbial beta-glucuronidases in Multiple Sclerosis

Students:

Arthur Liang, Amanda Zhong

Institution:

Stuyvesant High School, Manhattan

Mentors:

Victoria Ruiz

Abstract:

The human microbiome, harboring various microorganisms with immunoprotective mechanisms, is heavily linked with multiple sclerosis (MS) which is a chronic and progressive autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system. Studies have observed that there are specific microbial taxa differences in the microbiota of MS patients and some have established a clear link between estrogen variants and MS. There has not yet been a study that characterizes the interplay between β-glucuronidase-producing microorganisms and MS, but doing so may elucidate hormonal and immunological mechanisms underlying MS pathogenesis. In this study, we assess the estrobolome to identify the impact of ß-glucuronidase gene expression on the pathogenesis of MS. This will be done by characterizing microbiota populations and performing a whole genome analysis calibrated to population abundance to generate β-glucuronidase gene counts and thus allow for pairwise comparison between MS patients and healthy controls.

Poster:

Team samples: