Section “Biotechnology through the lens of the microbiome”

The section will feature presentations and discussions of talks on recent advances in the development of microbiome-targeted products and technologies. Today, the gut microbiome is viewed as an organ that integrates multidirectional communication among most human organs and systems and also perceives signals from the external environment. Disorders in the composition of the microbiome (dysbiosis) correlate with many diseases, including oncological, cardiovascular, autoimmune, endocrine, and neurological disorders.

The microbiome of a healthy person is regarded as a source of functionally active bacteria that can serve as a basis for creating next-generation nature-like medicines (pharmabiotics, postbiotics, and enzymes) for combination therapy of various conditions. Omics technologies (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and others) are the most important tools for their development.

The accumulated large-scale datasets characterizing the microbiome and microbiome-mediated diseases require the use of bioinformatics methods and artificial intelligence technologies, machine learning, computational reconstruction of gene and neural-network models, as well as the search for new algorithms and analytical concepts. Their use enables deeper modeling of the functional architecture of various diseases, including neurodegenerative ones.

The presentations at the section will demonstrate, using pharmabiotics, postbiotics, and enzymes derived from them as examples, various algorithms, technologies, and biotechnological approaches to their development.

Symposium “Microbiology and biotechnology” co-chair Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, Head of the Laboratory of Genetics of Microorganisms, Head of Department of Genetic Bases of Biotechnology, VIGG RAS, Moscow Valery N. Danilenko