Microbiomes and Health

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Explain terms such as “microbiome” and “holobiont” and be familiar with their respective definitions.
• Demonstrate a theoretical background about common techniques such as extraction of genomic material from microbiome samples, marker gene amplification and high-throughput sequencing.
• Identify mechanisms via which the human microbiome modulates the risk of infection, inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, and cancer.
• Outline key state-of-the-art techniques to study microbiome composition and function.
• Describe how the microbiome links environmental, plant and human health.
• Analyse specific omics data sets and critically evaluate the data in the light of current body of knowledge.
• Identify microbiome-based solutions to improve human, plant, and planetary health.
• Identify mechanisms via which the microbiome protects against plant pathogens.
• Explain how the human microbiome is established and how it can contribute to proper brain development and function.

The syllabus will concentrate on the following areas:

• Microbial diversity
• Next-generation tools for microbiome analysis - omics approaches, Fluorescence in situ hybridisation, microbial ecophysiology methods
• The human microbiome across the lifespan
• Modulation of the gut microbiome via diet and other extrinsic factors: possible implications for human health
• Main mechanisms of bidirectional interactions in the microbiota-gut-brain axis
• The microbiome as a target for human disease prevention and treatment
• The importance for microbiome interconnectedness of life on earth and implications for human and planetary health
• The plant microbiome: composition, transmission routes (focus on vertical transmission) and assembly
• The role of the microbiota in crop performance and disease control
• Synthetic communities and microbiome engineering

The contact teaching component of this module will be delivered by lecturing (20 lectures) and a practical workshop (6 hours). A series of learning outcomes have been established and teaching and non-contact learning are closely aligned with these criteria. A number of the learning outcomes are focused on transferrable skills, including workshops and reports where students will further develop bioinformatic skills, writing skills and critical-thinking.

Lecture: 20 hours

Independent Study: 112 hours

Workshop – computer lab: 6 hours

Completion of assessment task: 12 hours

Total study time: 150 hours

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.