Dr. Shaunna Huston
Director of Programs & Business, IMC, Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary
Dr. Kathy McCoy
Professor in the Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, & Member, Snyder Institute, Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary
Dr. Paul Kubes
Professor in the Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, & Member, Snyder Institute, Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary
The International Microbiome Centre at the University of Calgary is a world leading research centre for studying the microbiome of humans, animals, plants and the physical environment.
Our bodies are home to trillions of microbes, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses, collectively known as the microbiome. Found on all mucosal and barrier surfaces, with the largest numbers in the small and large intestines, these microbes have a huge impact on our health. For example, the microbes in our gut train the immune system, break down potentially toxic food compounds, and synthesize vitamins.
Each person develops their own mix of microbes, determined by genetics and factors such as diet, previous infections, and environmental exposure. These can either be beneficial or put us at greater risk for disease. Disturbances to the microbiome have been linked with diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, type 1 diabetes, metabolic diseases, obesity, cancer, anxiety, and depression.
And it’s not just humans who have a microbiome — animals, plants, soils, and oceans have them, too. While scientists are still in the early stages of fully understanding the microbiome, there has been an explosion of exciting research in this area, and the International Microbiome Centre at the University of Calgary is a leader in the field.
World-class researchers and advanced technologies
Founded in 2015, the International Microbiome Centre (IMC) is a translational research centre designed to investigate the microbiome of humans, plants, animals, and the physical environment. World-class microbiome researchers are using advanced technologies to make important discoveries that will harness the healing power of the microbiome. One of those researchers is Dr. Kathy McCoy, a professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology and a member of the Snyder Institute at the University of Calgary. Dr. McCoy is studying interactions of the gut microbiome with the immune system, including how a mother’s microbiome plays a role in shaping a baby’s immune system.
“There’s a critical window in early life, when the immune system is very open to receiving signals from the microbiome. We believe that alterations during this critical period have an impact on the health of the child, in terms of increased susceptibility, especially to immune-mediated diseases like asthma, dermatitis, and food allergies, autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes, and even neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder,” says Dr. McCoy.
Dr. McCoy is also studying how interactions between the microbiome and the immune system can modulate the effectiveness of certain treatments, such as cancer therapy. In one recent study, Dr. McCoy and colleagues found that three bacterial species significantly enhanced the efficacy of immunotherapy in cancer treatment in mice.
Potential to treat disease
“What I think is most exciting is that we can harness the power of the microbiome to treat disease,” says Dr. McCoy. “We can’t change our genes, but we can modify our microbiome. And the more that we understand this communication between the microbiome and the immune system, in which different microbial species are beneficial, the greater our odds are of hopefully designing microbial therapies that can treat disease.”
Dr. Paul Kubes is another IMC researcher. He heads the University of Calgary’s major research strategy for Infections, Inflammation, and Chronic Diseases in the Changing Environment. Dr. Kubes is using advanced technology to watch the immune system at work. His lab is imaging the organs in a living species to understand what the immune system is doing during various diseases. “We’re looking at what happens to immune cells and how they function and what the role of the microbiome is and its effect,” he says.
Dr. Kubes says it’s important to remember that the microbiome links us all. “If the grass at a farm is sprayed with a substance and the cows get into it, their microbiome is altered and they develop disease or have certain pathogens. If that food enters the human food chain, it can be a huge problem,” he says. “I think understanding the microbiome, not just from the perspective of humans, but also from the perspective of what we eat — and what eats those things — is absolutely critical.”
Dr. McCoy agrees. “We live in a very connected world, so we can’t have a narrow view,” she says. “We need to realize that the microbiome affects everything. It’s not just a human issue.” Dr. McCoy says that it’s important to understand the One Health perspective, which recognizes that the health of people is closely connected to the health of animals and the environment.
Multidisciplinary approach improves research
This is one of the reasons that the IMC takes a multidisciplinary approach, for example, studying the use of probiotics to prevent infections in hospital patients, exploring oil sands for microbial compounds that could combat infection, manipulating the microbiome in livestock to treat diseases such as mastitis, and understanding the wild or natural microbiome in animals (mice) to expediate the translation of research into practice.
This approach also allows researchers to pool their resources to be able to use the most advanced technologies, says Dr. Shaunna Huston, Director of Programs and Business at the IMC. For example, the centre’s bioinformatics platform analyzes big data from multiple sources (including genomics, imaging, metabolomics, clinical and more) to answer research questions. Its genomics platform can assess which microbes are present and identify immune cell changes in response to the microbiome. This will help us understand the effect of the microbiome on humans, animal health, agriculture, energy, and the environment. Its germ-free facility, which is one of the largest academic facilities worldwide, allows researchers to study mice that have no microbes in or on them. “Then we can add back single microbes or a community of microbes to study the immune system response to specific microbes and their relationship to chronic disease,” says Dr. Huston.
The IMC also contributes to IMPACTT, the cross-disciplinary Canadian Microbiome Research Centre funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, to strengthen Canada’s position as an international leader in microbiome research. The IMPACTT research team, including University of Calgary researchers Drs. Paul Kubes, Joe Harrison, Braedon McDonald, Ian Lewis, Markus Geuking, Kathy McCoy, Marie-Claire Arrieta, and Laura Sycuro, plus researchers from across Canada, including Drs. Fiona Brinkman, Celia Greenwood, William Hsiao, Jayne Danska, Anita Kozyrskyj, Philippe Gros, Karen Madsen, and Diego Silva, provides a network of expertise to researchers across Canada, develops tools to strengthen microbiome research, and fosters collaboration between researchers. The IMC also recently received a Canadian Foundation for Innovation grant to build the Wild Microbiome and Immunity Centre, in which researchers will study the microbiome and immunobiome of wild mice, which are much closer to those of humans. This will help researchers come much closer to establishing therapeutics that would work in humans.
A major focus is to build collaborations and partnerships, working with clinicians, industry, government, and other universities to move microbiome research forward. Our vision is to harness the power of the microbiome for better living, to promote health and treat disease.
“The vision of the IMC was to take research and be able to put it into practice,” says Dr. Huston. “A major focus is to build collaborations and partnerships, working with clinicians, industry, government, and other universities to move microbiome research forward. Our vision is to harness the power of the microbiome for better living, to promote health and treat disease.”
