DWS Travel Grant Awardee Presents Human Oral Microbiome Research in Miami

Kitty Guo, a PhD researcher at the University of Dundee was recently awarded the DWS Travel Grant to present her research at the Microbiology Society Microbes in Microbiomes Meeting in Miami, USA. The event united researchers across human, animal and plant microbiome, with Kitty showcasing how the Whitley DG250 Workstation advanced her human oral microbiome research.

We asked Kitty to share more about her study:

"My project investigates the role of the oral pathobiont Fusobacterium nucleatum in extra oral disease. This species is a normal constituent of the human oral microbiome, but has been identified to have a pathogenic or potentially pathogenic role in a number of extra oral diseases including colorectal cancer.

A major challenge in understanding this organism lies within the high degree of genomic heterogeneity. There were four previously described sub-species, but recent whole genome analyses have resulted in the reclassification of these sub-species as distinct species. My work has involved culturing clinical isolates from saliva and dental plaque and conduct whole genome sequencing of these isolates to gain a greater understanding of strain-level variation in relation to virulence.

A Whitley DG250 Workstation was a critical element in this work, allowing the culturing of these anaerobic isolates and subsequent experiments such as antibiotic sensitivity testing on the novel isolates.

I presented an oral presentation of my work at the Microbiology Society Microbes in Microbiomes meeting in Miami, USA. This was a great opportunity for me to share my work with others in a focussed meeting and explore new directions for future experiments. It also highlighted the continued relevance of culturing isolates in a context of increasing metagenomics based work. I was also very happy to receive the best oral presentation prize for my talk.

I would like to thank DWS for the generosity of the travel grant, helping me to attend this conference to share my research and learn from others."

We thank Kitty for providing such an insightful overview into her research and would like to congratulate her once again on receiving the DWS Travel Grant Award.

If you think that you might be eligible for the DWS Travel Grant, please visit our travel grant page for more details.