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Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology

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Student Competition

Undergrad Poster Competition: PBT, Genetics, Molecular Biology, and Toxicology

D3190: The effect of gut microbiota absence on Drosophila melanogaster’s blood-brain barrier

Monday, November 11, 2024
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM MST
Location: Phoenix Convention Center, Exhibit Hall 6, PCC
Poster Display Student Competition
The blood-brain barrier (BBB) acts as a barrier, separating the interstitium of the brain and blood, allowing only select molecules to pass through to protect the integrity of the brain. A regular BBB would be able to filter molecules required for the regulation and development of the brain while a defective one could either be highly permeable or even more restrictive, which could allow pathogen entry or deficiency in the brain respectively. BBB has been an emerging research subject, aiming to manipulate its permeability to allow drug entry and better understand the physiology of the brain in general. It has been revealed in recent years that gut microbiota plays a critical role in the health of not only the Enteric Nervous System but also the permeability of the BBB in mice, with mice lacking a gut microbiome having a more permeable BBB to its microbiome-possessing counterparts. Drosophila is an ideal model species, as just like mammals, it has a highly selective BBB and a wide variety of experimental tools to further our understanding of the effect of gut microbiota on mental health. Furthermore, due to its extensive use in BBB investigations, understanding the effect of gut microbiota on Drosophila BBB permeability could connect the dots from previous research between gut microbiome and finer biological processes such as GPCR signaling that affect the integrity of the BBB. This assessment would investigate how gut microbiota in Drosophila melanogaster (Dm) affects the physical structure of BBB and its constituents.