Establishing a Skin Microbiome Transplant

University Of California, San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A complex and diverse community of bacteria reside on human skin. Abundant experimental evidence now exists in cell culture systems and mouse models that shows many of these commensal bacteria residing on healthy subjects can be beneficial. These bacteria perform essential functions such as inhibiting survival of pathogenic bacteria, limiting skin inflammation and enhancing skin innate immune defense. Therefore, it has been hypothesized that the bacteria that normally inhabit human skin could be exploited to benefit us. However, clinical proof in humans of this hypothesis is lacking because of the lack of a rational controlled approach to test this. This exploratory and developmental clinical trial proposal seeks to study the effect of a series of simple interventions to better understand the potential benefits of transplant of commensal bacteria part of the microbiome on human skin. The design of our approach will test specific hypotheses related to key concepts inherent to microbiome transplant such as the function, duration and effects on other microbes. This proposal will provide answers to key unknown questions about the microbiome of human skin that will be relevant to a wide range of skin disorders. Our specific aims are: Aim1: Evaluate the capacity of an autologous microbiome transplant to decrease S. aureus colonization. Aim 2: Determine the duration of survival of transplanted bacteria on the skin surface. Aim3: Measure the influence of the transplanted bacteria on the local microbiome.