The project will be performed in the research group of Prof. Cecilia Williams.
The group is located at Scilifelab on Solna campus and belongs to the department of Bioscience and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet.

HYPOTHESIS
• Intestinal epithelial ERβ contributes to reduced initiation and progression of colon cancer by modifying the microbiota composition.

STUDY AIM
• To determine if/how intestinal ERβ impacts the microbiota composition and characterize potential sex-differences.

BACKGROUND
The gut microbiota is responsible of keeping intestinal homeostasis and impaired symbiotic relationship between the host and associated microbes, known as dysbiosis can contribute to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), colorectal cancer (CRC) and obesity. Recent advances have suggested a synergistic action between estrogens and gut microbiota to influence cancer. The microbiota can metabolize estrogen-like compounds to biologically active forms, which can activate the estrogen receptors. The soy isoflavone genistein can alter the composition of the gut microbiota in postmenopausal women by increasing the levels of the beneficial bacteria Bifidioabacterium and decreasing the levels of Clostridiaceae, which is involved in the pathogenesis of several human diseases.
Our group has generated a mouse strain lacking specifically ERβ in the intestinal epithelium. Using an AOM/DSS-induced colorectal cancer model, we are investigating the role of intestinal ERβ in the microbiota composition and the potential sex-differences.

TASKS
• To analyze the microbiota composition of female and male WT and intestinal ERβ knockout mice.

METHODOLOGY
• Microbiota DNA extract from caecum content
• Literature search to select the bacteria of interest
• Designing qPCR primers and run qPCR
• Analyzing and presenting the data