GEMINI pipeline: Fecal microbiota & Immune fitness evaluation in healthy, elderly and centenarians populations

The symbiosis between microbiome and its host creates a homeostasic crosstalk regulating the host immune system. Host microbiome richness and diversity are linked with a wide range of diseases and treatment efficacies such as vaccination or immunotherapies.

The project includes three different cohorts of volunteers: healthy volunteers (18 and 55 years old) – considered as a reference group (n=51); elderly population between 50 and 75 years old - considered as the population of interest for seasonal vaccinations (n=60); and centenarians’ population (> 95 years old) – that may present a gut microbiota and immune system with specific properties partly supporting their exceptional longevity in relatively good health.

By integrating high throughput anoxic culturomics, host/microbiota interaction functional analyses, with metabolism and host immune response analytical capacities, BIOASTER has established a multidisciplinary platform for the development of microbiome derived products.

Here we report the characterization of human donors “immune fitness” data through the analyses of plasma cytokines profiles in whole blood stimulation assays using TruCulture, paired to feces analyses. Our results will guide our strategy for gut microbiome bacterial isolations.

The screening of specific microbiome strains will lead to their genetic identification, their functional characterization and the development of next-generation probiotics with clinical related immuno-modulatory properties.