Strategic Research Area OUH

The strategic research area “Personalized microbiota therapy in clinical medicine” establishes a multidisciplinary team at Oslo University Hospital, which will plan, coordinate and perform human trials of microbiota therapy. Clinical medicine based on stratification or modification of gut microbial composition requires gastroenterologists, infectious disease specialists, microbiologist and specialists in the individual diseases. Recently funded trials in primary C. difficile colitis, systemic sclerosis, HIV infection and cardiovascular disease highlight the potential and the need for a joint research strategy to enable rapid clinical translation and improved patient care within many fields, including inflammatory and infectious diseases as well as immune therapy for cancer.

The human gut microbiota, the total microbial content of the gastrointestinal tract, has a major impact on human health. The research groups included in the Strategic Reseach Area Project have contributed to seminal studies performing basic characterization of the disease-associated gut microbiota in multiple chronic inflammatory diseases and immunodeficiencies, and several proof-of-concept interventions targeting the microbiota, including the first trial of fecal microbiota transplantation in primary C. difficile colitis. It is demonstrated beyond doubt that disease-associated gut microbiota alterations exist. In experimental models, multiple conditions can be treated by modulating the gut microbiota, while data on how to modify the microbiota to improve disease management in humans are still lacking. One key observation is that inter-individual differences in gut microbiota composition are substantial, meaning that 1) gut microbiota medicine must be personalized, i.e. adapted to the individual, and 2) true personalized medicine must take gut microbiota into account.

Shared expertise, common methodology and analytical strategies are important to facilitate clinical implementation. This could be defined as the basic skills of the strategic area partners (Figure). These basic skills will be applied on the clinical problems, which are the expertise and topics of the groups and departments participating in this application, creating a circle of synergy.

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