Host Microbe Core (HMC)

The Host-Microbe Core (HM) was developed to anticipate novel trends in the study of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and the needs of DDRCC investigators who wanted to understand the complex interactions between the host and gut microbes.

The core has two components:

1. The Enteric Microbiology component offers novel screening and advanced technologies for compositional and functional profiling of the resident microbial communities in the gastrointestinal tract.
2. The Gnotobiotic Mouse component enables our investigators to study the effects and causal role of specific microorganisms or profiles in vivo.

Protocols from the Enteric Microbiology Component fro high-throughput analysis of microbial communities (16S rRNA-based], metagenomics and metatranscriptomics, and qPCR for relative bacterial load, sulfate-reducing organisms in a community, and butyrate producing organisms) are featured here.