Profesor Asistente, Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Medicina, U Chile.
Ph.D, Cnservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France.
Líneas de Investigación
All the surfaces of the human body are colonized by microbial communities (Bacteria, Fungi, Virus), known as microbiota, that is estimated around 100 trillion bacterial cells, nearly 10 times larger than the total number of our somatic and germ cells. This microbial community has a symbiotic and mutualistic relationship with the human host.
Over the past few years, various studies showed that these microorganisms and/or their derived metabolites interact with different metabolic and physiologic pathway, suggesting that the microbiota would play an understimated role in health.
Consequently, disturbance of this microbial community (Dysbiosis) can lead to imbalance these mutualistic relationships,affecting host physiology and compromising human health status. In effect,intestinal dysbiosis has been described in various human diseases, including autoimmune and/or inflammatory disorders includingCrohn disease, allergies and metabolic disorders, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes.
The focus of the lab is therefore to characterize the molecular mechanisms involved in the host microbiota interactions, to understand the role of the microbiota in the development of diseases and to develop putative therapeutic approaches.
Acoordingly, the lab is targeting two microbial ecosystems:
- The lung microbiota
Once believed to be sterile, we showed recently that the lung harbors a diverse bacterial community. However the role of these microorganisms in lung physiology and dysfunction remains yet unknown and is the aim of a research project recently financed by a Fondecyt grant (Fondecyt Regular 1191311) .
- The intestinal microbiota
The intestinal microbiota is widely involved in a great set of digestive and systemic diseases. In addition, it also participates in health programing in the early steps of life. Then the characterization of factors influencing the early colonization of the newborn’s gut by the microbiota remains prime importance.