Microbiomes, Metabolism and Omics

Overview

Microbiomics, the study of microbial communities, is a new research field propelled by the rapid evolution of high-throughput sequencing and omics. The study of the diversity of microbiota in environmental niches, including those associated with hosts, the dynamics in time and space, the interactions between microorganisms or microorganisms and their hosts, and the function of microbes, has contributed significantly to the understanding of the essential roles of microbiomes in topics from ecology to agriculture and medicine.

The main goal of the research group is to understand the metabolic pathways and/or mechanisms of adaptation of microorganisms and microbiomes to environments, with a particular focus on microbiomes of extremophilic environments and host-microbiome interactions in diseases. We are interested in knowing who the microorganisms are, where they live, how they adapt to their environments, how they interact with other microorganisms in the microbial communities, or with hosts, and why they adopt specific strategies.
We are also interested in the discovery of new organisms, new metabolic pathways, enzymes, products, and metabolites and the translation of new properties into biotechnology applications.

Our objectives are to study microbiomes and microorganisms to:

1. Isolate, culture, and characterize new microorganisms (bacteria and archaea).
2. Study the adaptation metabolism and/or mechanism to extremophilic and other environmental conditions.
3. Identify key players, core microorganisms, and microbial interactions in microbiomes through co-occurrence networks and other advanced association methods.
4. Identify enzymes, products, and metabolites and evaluate their potential biotechnology application.
5. Provide training for M.Sc. and Ph.D. students