Welcome to the Schirmer Lab!
Our aim is to understand the role of the human microbiome in health and to identify aberrant host-microbial interactions in immune-related diseases. Ultimately, we want to leverage this knowledge to improve our ability to diagnose, treat and prevent these diseases with new microbiome-based approaches that aim at restoring the host-microbial balance.
The human microbiome is the large collection of bacteria, viruses, archaea and fungi that live in and on our body. Most of these organisms live in our gut and provide important immunological and metabolic benefits. In many diseases, such as chronic inflammatory bowel diseases and immune-related diseases, an imbalance of these microbial communities has been observed. The underlying reasons and consequences of this imbalance are largely unknown though. Previous studies have identified taxonomic changes of the microbiome and disease-associated bacterial species. However, different strains of the same species can substantially differ in their functional capacities. To address these challenges, our lab uses integrated analyses of complex multi-omics datasets from large clinical cohorts to computationally predict host-microbial interactions. We then follow up with experimental validation of the immunogenicity and inflammatory activity of the identified bacterial strains and metabolites, providing insights into the potential mechanisms of the human microbiome in health and diseases.