Phil Hansbro
Professor Phil Hansbro, University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
Title: The Role of the Microbiome in COPD
Biography
Biography: Phil Hansbro
Abstract
Recent technical advances have enabled the assessment of entire microbiomes in tissues. This had led to the elucidation of their roles in health and disease. Until recently the lower respiratory tract was thought to be sterile but microbiome studies have shown this not to be the case and that there is a core lung microbiome. Alterations in the microbiome indicate and may be causal in disease. In dysbiosis commensals are displaced by pathgens that drive inflammation and inflammatory diseases including the in the respiratory tract. It is now established thatthere is infectious and inflammatory cross talk between the lung and gut and so changes in gut microbiomes may also be involved in respiratory disease potentially through the induction of systemic inflammation. The current state of the field in COPD will be assessed and new data from our lab on the role of changes in the gut microbiome in this disease will be presented.