Corinne Maurice and Natalie Zeytuni from the School of Biomedical Sciences have received funding from the Weston Family Foundation鈥檚 Proof-of-Principle program, .听
The Weston Family Foundation, through the Weston Brain Institute and the Weston Family Microbiome Initiative, supports science-based approaches to significantly improve the health and well-being of Canadians. The Proof-of-Principle program, through the Weston Family Microbiome Initiative, funds Canadian research efforts that advance the application of the microbiome to improve human health. 听
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Gut鈥搗irus interactions and early鈥憀ife health听
Corinne Maurice, Canada Research Chair in Gut Microbial Interactions,听Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology, and co-Director of the听涩里番 Centre for Microbiome Research, received funding for her project titled, 鈥淧hage-bacteria dynamics in early life: shaping gut maturation in health and obesity鈥�.
Maurice will investigate a largely overlooked player in early-life gut microbiome development: bacteriophages, which are viruses that infect bacteria, an important factor in childhood obesity, a major and growing health concern.
She will study how interactions between bacteria and bacteriophages shape microbiome maturation in infants at risk of obesity and explore whether a novel approach called fecal viral transfer (FVT), which uses only the viral component of the microbiome, could help restore healthy microbial development. The findings could open new pathways for early-life interventions that reduce long-term risks of metabolic disease.听听听
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Novel protein鈥慴ased tools to block harmful oral bacteria听听
Natalie Zeytuni, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, received funding for her project titled, 鈥淪elective Inhibition of Bacterial Surface Structures to Restore Oral Microbiome Symbiosis鈥�.听听
Gum disease is one of the most common chronic conditions worldwide and is closely linked to imbalances in the oral microbiome. Zeytuni鈥檚 project aims to prevent it by blocking the earliest steps of harmful biofilm formation in the oral microbiome that drive long-term inflammation in the mouth and beyond.听听
Using structural biology and protein engineering, her team will design small, stable proteins that recognize and block the surface structures that bacteria use to attach to teeth and form disease-promoting communities. These proteins will be produced and tested in controlled biofilm models to determine whether they can prevent disease-associated bacteria from joining and stabilizing these communities. By identifying vulnerable structural features on bacterial attachment machinery and developing prototype protein blockers that bind these sites with high specificity, Zeytuni鈥檚 work will lay the foundation for future development of topical, non-antibiotic strategies to support a healthier oral microbiome.听听