Developing a therapeutic defined microbial community for the treatment of Depression

Depression is an illness that impacts 1 in 6 people during their lifetime. While there exist a number of medications to treat this illness, half of those whom need them either do not respond or can not tolerate current medications because of side effects. Therefore there is an urgent need to develop new ways to treat depression. One of the areas being explored as a potential option is based on what is now known as a strong link between the bacteria that live in our gut and the brain. We are now looking at what specific bacteria are responsible for this effect so that we can design a bacterial based medication for the treatment of depression. We will identify bacteria which are different between people with and without depression and then use machine learning to predict which specific strain will have the potential to improve depressive symptoms, treat depression.

Faculty Supervisor:

Prameet Sheth

Student:

Partner:

Taylored Biotherapeutics

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Queen's University

Program: