Guest Editors
Quin Xie
University of Oxford
<p>Dr. Quin Xie is a postdoctoral fellow in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford. Her PhD research investigated how environmental and microbial exposures shape immune development and metabolic health trajectories in children, with a particular focus on the role of the gut microbiota in the risk of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Her doctoral work examined the interplay between the gut microbiota, immune responses, and therapeutic outcomes in youth-onset diabetes. She developed innovative approaches to identify immune-microbe interactions that predict response to teplizumab, the first FDA-approved immunotherapy for delaying the onset of type 1 diabetes.</p><p><br></p><p>In addition, Dr. Xie's research in adolescent obesity demonstrated that altered gut microbial biomass and systemic inflammation are associated with early metabolic dysfunction. She currently leads a study investigating brain changes associated with obesity and metabolic dysfunction using large-scale human datasets, complemented by in vivo and in vitro validation in multiple model systems.</p>
Zhuyi Wang
University of Toronto
<p>Zhuyi Wang is a senior PhD candidate in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. Using <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em> as a model system, her research investigates post-transcriptional regulation by RNA-binding proteins and small RNAs during the earliest stages of embryonic development, with a particular focus on maternally deposited transcripts. Her work integrates biochemical, genetic, and computational approaches to uncover the molecular mechanisms governing early embryogenesis. She has extensive experience with techniques ranging from reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) and western blotting to advanced methodologies, including antibody production, RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (RIP-seq), cross-linking immunoprecipitation (CLIP), northern blotting, and immunoprecipitation-mass spectrometry (IP-MS). She is currently preparing to publish her findings on a novel regulatory mechanism involving a well-studied gene.</p>
Mahmoud El-Maklizi
University Health Network; University of Toronto
<p>Dr. Mahmoud El-Maklizi is a postdoctoral research fellow at University Health Network in Toronto, Ontario. His PhD research focused on the role of Notch signaling in the development and generation of innate gut intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) of the CD8 T-cell lineage. His current postdoctoral research investigates the development and functions of regulatory B cells, a specialized subset of B cells that plays a critical role in maintaining immune homeostasis and regulating immune-mediated disorders, including autoimmune diseases.</p>
Collection Overview
Our body is a mosaic of intricate ecosystems. The skin, the gut lining, the oral cavity, and every other surface of the body are co-inhabited by microorganisms of diverse lineages and forms. Situated at the interface between the host and the environment, these microbial communities, collectively known as the microbiota, have been extensively characterized using high-throughput techniques to catalogue their genes, transcripts, and metabolic products. Alterations in these features have proven informative for predicting disease outcomes and treatment responses in a variety of contexts. Nonetheless, the complex dynamics of intermicrobial and host–microbe interactions have limited a comprehensive understanding of the microbiota's role in maintaining physiological homeostasis and hindered the generalization of disease–microbiota associations across studies.
This collection invites protocols spanning a wide range of sample types and anatomical sites (e.g., gut, breast milk, saliva, lung), in vitro and ex vivo systems (e.g., continuous culture, organoids, mucosal co-culture), cellular readouts (e.g., single-cell profiling, flow cytometry, immunoassays, imaging of the host–microbe interface, and abiotic factors), and experimental models (human, gnotobiotic mice, non-mammalian organisms, and in silico models). By assembling practical and reproducible protocols across microbiology, immunology, genetics, and systems biology, this collection aims to provide the research community with a comprehensive toolkit to advance the mechanistic understanding of host–microbiota interactions.