A key control knob for microbiome metabolism

Researchers are uncovering the complex mechanisms by which human gut bacteria accomplish a variety of functions, from transforming compounds derived from food into nutrition for the host to producing molecules that impact human behavior and performance. The Venturelli Lab has now overturned prior knowledge about how polysaccharide utilization loci (PULs) mediate the fitness and community-level …

Crop harvests and bacterial blends

Drive down Wisconsin’s county roads on a crisp fall day and you’ll see farmers maneuvering combines across their fields, harvesting bushels upon bushels of corn. Farmers help ensure a bountiful harvest by applying fertilizers that provide crops with vital nutrients. One such nutrient, nitrogen, makes individual plants stronger and improves crop yields. Until the mid-1900s, …

Venturelli R21 to provide major advance for personalized microbiome therapies

Clostridioides difficile, an antibiotic-resistant intestinal pathogen, is the leading cause of hospital-acquired infections in the United States. Treatment of a Clostridioides difficile, also known as C. difficile, infection may include courses of antibiotics or fecal transplants in which the fecal sample of a healthy donor is transplanted into a patient with C. difficile. These treatments …

Computational design of microbial communities

Microbial communities are everywhere in the environment. The interactions among these complex networks of organisms shape the overall community function and metabolism, sometimes in unexpected ways. In a paper published May 31 in Nature Communications, a team led by University of Wisconsin–Madison assistant professor of biochemistry Ophelia Venturelli describes a generalizable, model-driven framework to predict …

Venturelli Lab develops computational model to predict butyrate production in the human gut microbiome

Researchers have developed the capability to predict and design the metabolic activities of microbial communities, which has broad implications for human health, agriculture and bioprocessing. In a paper released May 31st in Nature Communications [link], Biochemistry Assistant Professor Ophelia Venturelli and Ryan Clark, formerly a postdoc in the Venturelli lab and now of Nimble Therapeutics, …

NIH funds R01 grant to study a model-guided design of next-generation bacterial therapeutics to treat cardiovascular disease

Ophelia Venturelli (Biochemistry) in collaboration with Philip Romero (Biochemistry) and Federico Rey (Bacteriology) were awarded an R01 grant through the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. The award will provide a total of $2.7M over four years. The team will develop computational modeling and optimization techniques to design next-generation bacterial therapeutics that sense major …

Scientists develop and apply new tool for studying the dynamics of microbial communities

Microbial communities perform diverse chemical and physical transformations in every environment on Earth. These communities exhibit tremendous spatial and temporal variability. Abiotic (e.g. nutrient, pH) and biotic interactions shape the spatial distribution of microbes in natural environment such as the gut microbiome and plant rhizosphere. However, we do not fully understand how spatial arrangements influence …