7 Projects Funded in 2nd Year of Scialog: Microbiome, Neurobiology and Disease
Top row: Elizabeth Bess, Aida Ebrahimi, Annika Barber, David Durgan. 2nd row: Linnea Freeman, Gianna Hammer, Lisa Osborne, Ukpong Eyo, Yanjiao Zhou. 3rd row: Ashley Ross, Iliyan Iliev, Faranak Fattahi, Stephanie Cologna.
Seven cross-disciplinary teams working to advance understanding of the gut-brain axis will receive awards totaling $825,000 in the second year of Scialog: Microbiome, Neurobiology and Disease, an initiative sponsored by Research Corporation for Science Advancement, The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group and the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation, with support from Walder Foundation.
The 15 individual awards of $55,000 will go to 13 researchers from a variety of institutions across the United States and Canada.
“Many of today’s problems don’t just sit in one discipline,” said RCSA President & CEO Daniel Linzer. “Collaborative science, working at the interface of several different disciplines, can stimulate new ideas and feed discovery.”
Scialog is short for “science + dialog.” Created in 2010 by RCSA, the Scialog format supports research by stimulating intensive interdisciplinary conversation and community building around a scientific theme of global importance. Teams of two or three Fellows who have not previously collaborated compete for seed funding for high-risk, high-reward projects based on the innovative ideas that emerge at the conference.
Participants are encouraged to write proposals that depart from their current work to test out a new idea, try a new collaboration with someone whose approach is different, and push the boundaries of knowledge.
The following Scialog: Microbiome, Neurobiology and Disease teams will receive 2022 Scialog Collaborative Innovation Awards:
Elizabeth Bess, Chemistry, University of California, Irvine
Aida Ebrahimi, Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University
Electrifying Mechanisms of Intestinal α-Synuclein Aggregation in Parkinson’s Disease Onset
Annika Barber, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers University
David Durgan, Anesthesiology, Baylor College of Medicine
Diurnal Rhythms in Microbiota-Gut-Brain Signaling Leads to Time-of-Day Dependent Susceptibility to Stroke
Linnea Freeman, Biology, Furman University
Gianna Hammer, Immunology, University of Utah
Lisa Osborne, Microbiology & Immunology, University of British Columbia
The Intersection of Age, Microbiome and the Zeal for Continuous Learning by Cells of the Neuro-Immune Network
Lisa Osborne, Microbiology & Immunology, University of British Columbia
Ukpong Eyo, Neuroscience, University of Virginia
Understanding the Protective Effect of Helminth Immunotherapy Through the Lens of the Gut-Brain Axis
Yanjiao Zhou, Medicine, UConn Health
Ashley Ross, Chemistry, University of Cincinnati
Unraveling the Effect and Mechanism of Enteric Microbiota-Neuron Communication in Aging
Iliyan Iliev, Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine
Faranak Fattahi, Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco
Identifying Mycobiome-Derived Enteric Neuromodulators
Elizabeth Bess, Chemistry, University of California, Irvine
Stephanie Cologna, Chemistry, University of Illinois at Chicago *
Tracking Alpha-synuclein from Enteroendocrine Cells to the Enteric Nervous System
* Funded by Walder Foundation
The meeting, held virtually April 7-8, 2022, brought together 45 early career researchers from a variety of disciplines including chemistry, physics, biology, and neurophysiology to discuss challenges and gaps in current knowledge regarding the interplay between the gut microbiome and neurobiology, build community around visionary goals, and form teams to write proposals.
Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown, whose team at the Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, is investigating the gut microbiome as a contributing factor to autism, set the stage for discussion with her keynote presentation, “Can Changing Gut Bacterial Community Improve Gastrointestinal and Autism Symptoms?”
Autism diagnosis in children is increasing, and a high number of children on the autism spectrum suffer from gastrointestinal symptoms, Krajmalnik-Brown said.
She described her team’s recent open-label clinical trial, which modified the microbiome of children aged 10-17 with autism using microbiota transfer therapy. After microbiome modification, microbial diversity increased and the children’s gastrointestinal symptoms and behavior (such as irritability, lethargy, hyperactivity, communication, and motivation) improved significantly, with most improvements remaining two years after treatment.
Krajmalnik-Brown's team is now using a multi-omic approach to investigate the mechanisms that led to these changes, including an analysis of the microbes, pathways, genes, and metabolites which likely contributed to the trial’s success and might lead to identifying biomarkers or targets for treatment.
The meeting also featured a panel discussion with last year’s awardees, who talked about their progress and their experience working with new collaborators.
“The best part of collaboration is learning about your partners’ techniques and expertise,” said 2021 and 2022 awardee Ashley Ross. “The most surprising thing was learning how broad this problem really is and how many different tools we can use to solve it.”
A series of facilitated breakout sessions sparked ideas for new research. These breakouts, which spanned a variety of topics including biosensing and measurement, impacts of environmental and life experiences, the aging biome, mental health neurodegenerative disorders, and inflammation and autoimmunity, were led by these Facilitators: Emily Balskus, Harvard University; Barbara Bendlin, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Judith Eisen, University of Oregon; Ali Keshavarzian, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago; Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown, Arizona State University; and George Weinstock, The Jackson Laboratory.
Participants coalesced into teams around emerging ideas, considering what their collaborations might look like, what novel problems they might tackle together, and what additional skills they might need on their teams. Proposals were submitted a week following the conference.
The third and final meeting of Scialog: Microbiome, Neurobiology and Disease is scheduled for April 20 – 23, 2023, in Tucson, Arizona.
