“In my research group we study the mechanisms regulating the gut-liver axis during health and disease.

Research in our group focuses on the links between intestinal inflammatory conditions such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease and chronic liver disease characterised by loss of cell function leading to cirrhosis, and ultimately to cancer.

Back in 2019, I attended a workshop on microbiome research which sparked a collaboration with Dr Patrick Varga-Weisz whose research group studies the mechanisms of how the gut microbiota affect gene regulation in gut epithelial cells. His research group are based at the University of Essex and in Brazil too.

Meeting microbiome researchers

Patrick invited me to give a talk the gut-liver axis at the 1st Workshop in Mechanisms of Microbiota-host interactions in Juquehy in Brazil in November.

The workshop was a mix of people working in the microbiome field, from Professors through to PhD students.

Everyone was working on the gut microbiome but in different areas. It was great to learn about other people’s research on the microbiome.

Although I was the only person working on the gut-liver axis, another researcher was very interested in bile acids, which is a key area of our research.

Bile acids are small signaling molecules made in liver. The molecules move into the intestine. In the intestine, bile acids are important for absorbing fat and maintaining the microbiome of the intestine. It was exciting to meet others interested in this area there’s an exciting possibility of working together in the future.

Overall, I was very impressed by the science going on in Brazil studying the gut microbiome and its interaction with the immune system and during different conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease.

I have had lots of new ideas after taking part in the workshop and I anticipate some of the interactions I had at the meeting will materialise in new collaborations.

Sharing expertise with colorectal surgeons

Along with meeting microbiome researchers in Brazil, I also met with clinicians. I met with a colorectal surgeon Prof Raquel Franco-Leal. We first met back in 2019 too and started a collaboration.

During my visit I gave a talk at the hospital where she works at the University of Campinas. Along with being a colorectal surgeon, Raquel is the coordinator of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Research Laboratory at the UNICAMP. Visiting her lab gave me the opportunity to discuss more in depth the work Raquel and her team and doing as well as some of new projects we are planning on developing together.

It was great to meet clinicians during my visit to the hospital and see the labs

Raquel teaches medical students who are doing research working towards a PhD. Over the last few years, I have given an annual talk online to these students about how to write a scientific paper. This year, I gave the talk in person. It was fantastic to meet people in person after working together online.

Student placements from Brazil

My visit to Brazil builds on existing collaborations I have with both Patrick and Raquel.

In Brazil, they have funding programmes for PhD students to students to study abroad for a year.

A couple of years ago, Marina Moreira, a PhD student at the time in Raquel’s lab did a  six month internship here at the Quadram Institute. More recently, a PhD student Vinicius Dias Nirello supervised by Patrick and Dr Marco Vinolo at the University of Campinas joined my research group for a year here at the Quadram Institute.

In Brazil, Vinicius used bioinformatics to study the interactions between gut microbes and gut cells. Here at the Quadram Institute, he has been testing his findings from bioinformatics in the lab.

Vinicius’s work has resulted in very exciting findings demonstrating how the microbiome can shape intestinal architecture and cell function, a work that is currently under revision in a prestigious peer-reviewed journal.

It’s been brilliant to have Vinicus join us in the lab here at the Quadram Institute and this experience has also contributed to his training and progression as a PhD student in Brazil, where he will be able to apply techniques that he has learnt here at the Quadram Institute in my lab. Hopefully we can host other students from Brazil in the future too.

Overall, it was brilliant to visit Brazil to build on our research collaborations and together learn more about the gut microbiome.