Doctoral Dissertation Research: Dysbiosis, Health, and Therapeutics in Global Microbiome Science

博士论文研究：全球微生物组科学中的生态失调、健康和治疗

• 批准号: 2341707
• 负责人: Joseph Masco
• 金额: $ 2.19万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-03-15 至 2025-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2341707&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Dysbiosis; Health

In the 21st century, genomic methods of understanding microbes as ecosystems have generated the concept of the microbiome, a term that refers to the combined microorganisms and/or microbial genomes within a given environment. Often, that environment is the human body itself, and these new methods for studying human-associated microbes have resulted in new understandings of microbes’ importance to human health. This study examines how these shifts are changing ideas about how modern life affects human health. It investigates how the emerging field of microbiome science defines healthy and unhealthy human microbiomes, as well as underlying stakes and assumptions in these definitions. Aimed at more ethical and equitable interventions in health at both an individual and a global level, it will contribute empirical data on how microbiome initiatives can more equitably benefit groups that have been historically subjected to extractive research practices. Through publications and educational presentations, this research aims to change the ways that scientists and their clients in government, education, and industry use the microbiome to understand and intervene in the relationships between changing modern environments and human bodies.The study will employ ethnographic fieldwork focusing on global microbiome collection projects and the development of microbial therapeutics in the greater Boston/Cambridge area. In doing so, it asks: How is the development of microbial therapeutics changing contemporary understandings of health? How are human microbiomes designated healthy or unhealthy, and what is the role of therapeutic interventions in making these designations? Preliminary results suggest that high microbial biodiversity is coming to signify a new kind of human health, one associated with both a healthy environment and an idealized premodern relationship to it. The dissertation that emerges from this research will therefore examine the construction of modernity, environment, and the healthy body in microbiome science in order to theorize the effects of anthropogenic environmental change on approaches to human health and quality of life.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在 21 世纪，将微生物理解为生态系统的基因组方法产生了微生物组的概念，该术语指的是给定环境中的微生物和/或微生物基因组的组合。通常，该环境就是人体本身，而这些。研究与人类相关的微生物的新方法使人们对微生物对人类健康的重要性有了新的认识。这项研究探讨了这些转变如何改变人们对现代生活如何影响人类健康的看法。微生物组科学定义了健康和不健康的人类微生物组，以及这些定义中的潜在利害关系和假设，旨在在个人和全球层面对健康进行更道德和更公平的干预，它将提供有关微生物组倡议如何更公平地实施的经验数据。通过出版物和教育演示，这项研究旨在改变政府、教育和工业界的科学家及其客户利用微生物组来理解和干预不断变化的现代人之间关系的方式。环境和该研究将采用人种学实地调查，重点关注全球微生物组收集项目和大波士顿/剑桥地区微生物疗法的发展。在此过程中，它提出了这样的问题：微生物疗法的发展如何改变当代对健康的理解？人类微生物组被指定为健康还是不健康？初步结果表明，高微生物多样性将意味着一种新的人类健康，这种健康与健康的环境和健康相关。因此，本研究提出的论文将研究微生物组科学中现代性、环境和健康身体的构建，以便理论化人为环境变化对人类健康和生活质量的影响。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。