Slovenian leads research into gut bacteria and their proteins

Stražar, a computational biologist and machine learning scientist from the Broad Institute, a biomedical and genomic research centre that represents a research collaboration between the academic and medical communities at both Harvard and MIT, studies the role of gut bacteria and develops tools using artificial intelligence to predict the risk of intestinal and autoimmune diseases.

This could improve the health of people around the world, as chronic inflammatory bowel disease is on the rise in the developed world due to inadequate nutrition and modern lifestyles, and its prevalence is also increasing in developing countries.

Due to the complexity of the gut microbiota researchers are still learning about the different roles of gut bacteria and proteins. "For a long time, technology did not allow detailed analyses, but in the last decade this has started to change due to cost reductions and advances in genomic analysis and artificial intelligence," he told the STA.

Thanks to advanced AI models that assign functions to unknown proteins, a team led by him recently discovered gut bacteria and their proteins that can effectively break down cholesterol and help lower blood cholesterol and the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Stražar and his team also research how genetic factors in particular affect susceptibility to the development of chronic inflammatory bowel disease and autoimmune diseases. They develop tools to predict people's immune responses to bacterial and viral proteins based on their genotype.

They focus on HLA class II genes, which allow the immune system to recognise foreign proteins. In some people, certain variants of these genes can cause wrong immune responses, which leads to diseases such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, as well as gut inflammation, which increases the risk of chronic inflammatory bowel disease.

The researchers are using the tools they are developing to analyse variants of this gene and predict how they will bind to bacterial and viral proteins. "This allows us to identify genotypes associated with the risk of these types of diseases," Stražar said as he stressed the importance of AI in research.

In the coming years, genetic analyses and tools to predict immune responses should become more accessible, allowing early identification of risk factors in the development of these diseases.

"This could allow us to determine, even before the onset of symptoms, whether individuals would benefit from a tailored nutrition plan that includes probiotics and a greater variety of foods. In this way, the development of disease could even be prevented."

"There are trillions of microorganisms - bacteria, fungi and other organisms - in our gut, which by some estimates is even more than all the cells that make up the human body. If the gut microbiota was considered an organ, it would probably be the largest structure in the body," he told the STA.

The saying "you are what you eat" still holds true in light of recent scientific discoveries, as the nutritional variety of people's diets helps create an environment of various bacteria that support their immune system and are generally considered beneficial to their health.