Chip to unravel animal-microbiota evolution
Gut-on-a-chip technologies derived from multiple animal host species offer unique opportunities to explore the evolutionary aspects of animal-microbe interactions with unparalleled resolution. Assistant professor and first author to a new publication Ostaizka Aizpurua explains how.
Gut-on-a-chip is a relatively new, innovative model that has primarily been developed for studying human host-microbiota interactions, however Ostaizka highlights “there is no technical limitation to generate gut-on-a-chip in vitro models of any animal species we are interested in”. By creating such models for different wild animals, she believes it will unlock a multitude of opportunities.
In September 2022 Ostaizka received a Villum Experiment grant to support her gut-on-a-chip project, and now she has just published the first article of the project together with colleagues from Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics and Department of Biology, Section of Microbiology, UCPH. The article, titled “Unravelling animal-microbiota evolution on a chip” can be found in Cell’s Trends in Microbiology here.
Studying evolution in a new light
Given the significance of gut microorganisms in animals, there is a hypothesis suggesting that the interactions between hosts and their microbiota have had a substantial influence on the evolutionary trajectories of animals. "However, the practical difficulties in performing fully controlled experiments under a comparative framework have hindered how such animal-microbiota interactions vary across the tree of life," says Ostaizka. Hence, the new approach they proposed would allow researchers to move from correlational studies to study the exact mechanistic processes that are influencing the evolution of animals.
A bright innovative future
The research group led by Ostaizka is currently developing in vitro models for multiple animal species, allowing for controlled experimental studies on the variations in host-microbe interactions among different species. This research will contribute to our understanding of the importance of host-microbiota interactions in shaping the evolutionary trajectories of animals and is an exciting new innovative step for hologenomics research.
In the explainer video below you can learn more about Ostaizka’s exciting new research and the gut-on-a-chip technology.
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Assistant Professor Ostaizka Aizpurua