# Engineering microbiota to optimize inter-host transmission

> **NIH NIH P01** · UNIVERSITY OF OREGON · 2020 · $399,225

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT (PROJECT 2)
All animals (including humans) are host to a diverse collection of microorganisms, collectively known as their
“microbiome,” which is intimately involved in their health and wellbeing. Manipulating and managing the
microbiome requires understanding the forces that determine microbiome composition. Only a small fraction
of microbiome variation across hosts can be explained by individual host factors, for example host genetics or
diet, leading to the perception that there are no general rules governing microbiome composition and that
engineering microbiomes for host health will be very difficult. However inter-host transmission, defined as
the movement of microbes among individual hosts, has the potential to substantially alter microbiome
composition. This factor is frequently overlooked in microbiome studies, despite a long history of research
demonstrating that transmission of pathogens among individual hosts can influence the diversity and function
of the pathogens. Inter-host transmission also has the potential to impact host functions modulated by the
microbiome, analogous to the transmission of disease. This process could, in theory, be harnessed to create
“transmissible health,” the use of microbial transmission to improve host health without direct manipulation
of individual hosts. To effectively manipulate inter-host transmission, it is crucial to understand the drivers of
variation in rates of inter-host transmission, the conditions under which inter-host transmission has the
greatest impact on microbiome composition, and the functional consequences to the host of inter-host
transmission. We will address each of these topics in the proposed research, by combining experimental
manipulations with theoretical modeling to determine the nature, drivers and consequences of inter-host
transmission of the zebrafish intestinal microbiome. The relatively simple husbandry and large clutch sizes of
zebrafish allow us to manipulate transmission of microorganisms among a large number of replicate
individuals at a scale not feasible in humans or other vertebrate models. The results of these experiments will
be synthesized in a computational model that will be broadly applicable to host-microbe systems, including
humans. The proposed research will rigorously test the idea that health can be transmitted via dispersal of
microbiome members, with important implications for human medicine.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9990825
- **Project number:** 5P01GM125576-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
- **Principal Investigator:** Brendan Bohannan
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $399,225
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-08-06 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9990825

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9990825, Engineering microbiota to optimize inter-host transmission (5P01GM125576-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9990825. Licensed CC0.

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