# Designing a High-Throughput Platform to Bioprospect the Human Microbiome and ManipulateIts Iinterplay with Host Environments

> **NIH NIH DP2** · CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $974,391

## Abstract

DESIGNING A HIGH-THROUGHPUT PLATFORM TO BIOPROSPECT THE HUMAN
MICROBIOME AND MANIPULATE ITS INTERPLAY WITH HOST ENVIRONMENTS
Project Summary
The human microbiome, comprising hundreds of microbial species living in and on the
body, is now recognized to play critical roles in human health and performance as well
as disease prevention and management. A healthy microbiome (which has not yet been
fully characterized because some key species cannot be cultured) keeps in check
harmful microbes that are normally present. However, when this balance is perturbed,
pathogenic microbes may overgrow, a condition called dysbiosis, and compromise both
gut and immune functions.
Development of technologies for the growth and manipulation of microbial consortia are
urgently needed to assess the beneficial effects attributed to probiotics and synthetic
communities. Developing such ability would enable clinicians to reverse microbial
imbalance by providing a personalized set of microorganisms capable of restoring gut
functions associated with infectious, inflammatory, metabolic, cardiovascular, and
cognitive diseases in patients. To this end, my group aims to advance a bold and unique
microfluidic-based technology to isolate, culture, reconstruct, and, in the long-term,
manipulate the human gastrointestinal (GI, gut) microbiome to treat diseases. This
application specifically aims to develop a nanoculture system to grow microbial isolates
from the gut, including those as yet unculturable, and identify beneficial interactions or
bioactive metabolites essential to design synthetic communities capable of eradicating
or inhibiting the growth of pathogens such as Clostridium difficile. The preliminary
effectiveness of the ‘designed’ communities will be determined by treating
Clostridium difficile Infection (CDI) in an established mouse model. Our long-term goal is
to develop a microbial bank of live biotherapeutics of human origin comprising defined
microbial communities applicable for personalized and precision medicine. We envision
this technology to be a safe, easy-to-deliver, and efficient alternative to fecal microbiota
transplant (FMT) to treat diverse dysbiotic conditions, and thus help restore a healthy
gut microbiome.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11046196
- **Project number:** 7DP2GM149553-02
- **Recipient organization:** CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Tagbo Herman Roland Niepa
- **Activity code:** DP2 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $974,391
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2022-09-08 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11046196

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11046196, Designing a High-Throughput Platform to Bioprospect the Human Microbiome and ManipulateIts Iinterplay with Host Environments (7DP2GM149553-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11046196. Licensed CC0.

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