RESTORE · Reestablishing the lung microbiome : preclinical evaluation of targeted probiotics for pneumonia treatment

Nosocomial pneumonia is the second most common and most frequently fatal hospital-acquired infection worldwide. Previous understanding of lung health depicted a dichotomous view of microbial status (sterile vs. infected), leading to ""one-size-fits-all"" treatments that primarily target pathogens but neglect the complex host-microbiome interaction. The RESTORE hypothesis is that re-establishing the healthy respiratory microbiome core using a probiotic composed of lung-specific commensal bacteria and/or their derived metabolites can mitigate pneumonia severity by modulating pathogens and mucosal immunity. My main objectives are: 1) define lung-specific bacterial consortium and their derived metabolites/peptides, whose elimination is associated with pneumonia severity