Development of the first re-assembled functional intestinal microbiota for safe and effective treatment of Clostridium difficile infections - Pioneer Fellowship

Enlarged view: Bacterial cultures isolated from adult gut microbiota for reassembly of functional consortia — *Bacterial cultures isolated from adult gut microbiota for reassembly of functional consortia*

Intestinal Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) represents an increasing risk for hospitalized patients. As a nosocomial infection it affects mainly patients under antibiotic treatment. Causing from diarrhea to severe intestinal complications, this infection not only increases threefold the probability of within 30 days of infection, it also shows a high risk of recurrence with increasing difficulties in treatment.

Fecal microbiome transplant (FMT), or the transfer of fresh fecal material from a healthy donor to a patient, is currently the only effective treatment for last resort CDI, showing very high success rates of over 90% and fast recovery of bowel function. The use of fresh donor fecal material however, represents a significant risk for disease transmission or lack of compatibility between recipient and donor microbiota. Therefore, FMT is currently only tolerated for untreatable CDI while its efficacy based on a functional restitution of the microbiome is undisputed.

The presented project addresses the need for safe, controllable and effective treatment solutions, by developing fully controlled re-assembled microbiota for efficient and controled re-establishment of dysbiotic gut microbiota.