# Campylobacter jejuni restriction by the intestinal microbiota

> **NIH NIH R21** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $209,375

## Abstract

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Campylobacter jejuni is the most common cause of food-born diarrhea in the United States. Although it is most
often associated with self-limiting diarrheal disease, a small proportion of infected patients develop a more
serious neuro-degenerative complication known as Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Despite many important
advances in the field, still remarkably little is known about its mechanisms of pathogenicity. C. jejuni has the
ability to efficiently colonize the intestine of a broad range of hosts, which allows this pathogen to gain access
to the food chain thus presenting major challenges to the food industry. It has been widely observed that the
attack rate of C. jejuni during well-documented point-source outbreaks or controlled human infections is under
50%, and that even under conditions of heavy exposure, only a subset of individuals developed symptomatic
infections. It is well established that under physiological conditions, the resident microbiota exerts a restricting
effect over bacterial enteropathogens. We therefore hypothesize that some of the documented differences in
susceptibility to C. jejuni infection is due to differences in the composition of the intestinal microbiota. We
intend to conduct experiments to better understand the mechanisms by which the resident intestinal microbiota
restricts C. jejuni colonization. To achieve this objective we plan to leverage a germ-free chicken gut
colonization model that we have recently established in our laboratory along with our long-standing expertise in
the study of C. jejuni. These studies will provide the foundation for the understanding of the role of the resident
microbiota in C. jejuni intestinal colonization, which may serve as the bases for the development of novel
strategies to combat C. jejuni infections.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10909342
- **Project number:** 5R21AI173465-02
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Jorge E Galan
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $209,375
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-08-17 → 2025-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10909342

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10909342, Campylobacter jejuni restriction by the intestinal microbiota (5R21AI173465-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10909342. Licensed CC0.

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