Research Sarah Ahannach

Abstract

The Luna project aims to explore the impact of menstrual hygiene products on the vulvar and vaginal microbiomes, a crucial and understudied aspect of menstrual health. Recognizing menstrual hygiene access as a human right, the initiative addresses significant gaps in understanding how various products might influence women's health, including risks such as Menstrual Toxic Shock Syndrome (mTSS). By leveraging a substantial biobank from the Isala project, Luna engages a cohort of 100 healthy menstruators aged 18-40 and evaluates microbiome effects over five menstrual cycles using both traditional and sustainable hygiene products. The study distinguishes itself by incorporating vulvar microbiome analysis, an area often overlooked in previous research that primarily focused on vaginal health. The project hypothesizes that menstrual hygiene products affect the urogenital ecosystem in ways beyond mTSS. Using advanced sequencing techniques alongside comprehensive surveys, Luna seeks to understand women's beliefs and perceptions regarding menstrual hygiene products. The longitudinal intervention study will analyze microbiome shifts over time across five menstrual cycles with different products, identifying connections to vulvovaginal symptoms. Ultimately, the Luna project aspires to translate findings into actionable insights, driving stakeholder engagement in policy-making and industry standards, while contributing to Sustainable Development Goals related to health and gender equality. With this BOF SRG, it aims to generate critical evidence that enhances menstrual health practices and empowers women to make informed choices regarding their reproductive health.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Ahannach Sarah

Research team(s)

• Laboratory of Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology (LAMB)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Violence against women is an urgent global problem, as over one third of women worldwide has been victim of physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime. And remarkably, only 25% of reported rape cases in Europe ultimately lead to a conviction, often due to the difficulty of providing evidence. Recent advances in microbial profiling have uncovered that each individual is home to complex microbial communities. These communities inhabit all surfaces of the human body (for example, orogastrointestinal tract, respiratory tract, urogenital tract, skin) and collectively represent the human microbiota, with their microbial DNA signatures forming the microbiome. Recent research suggests that the microbiome could greatly aid forensic casework as a promising tool to strengthen traditional forensic investigative methods and fill related knowledge gaps. Large-scale microbiome studies indicate that microbial fingerprinting can assist forensics in areas such as trace evidence, source tracking, geolocation, and circumstances of death. The goal of this project to investigate the potential of the female microbiome as an additional forensic tool in criminal investigations, with a focus on sexual assault cases. We aim to do this in three ways. First, we want to establish a large, curated dataset with 16S rRNA and (shallow) shotgun sequences of vaginal, skin and saliva samples. Second, we want to re-create forensically relevant samples (i.e., mock crime scenes) such as mixtures, long-term stored traces, sexual intercourse samples, etc. in a controlled environment. These samples will carry a crucial added-value to the curated dataset that will serve as a training set. At last, we aim to validate our hypotheses and the developed classification model in collaboration with the Institute of Forensic Medicine at University of Zurich. This tool will be able: i) to predict traces of body sites/fluids taken from other body sites/fluids or, in other words, to discriminate "pure" from mixture samples; ii) to predict from a vaginal sample whether intercourse has recently taken place. For the validation of this model, we aim to sequence the microbiome of at least 100 vaginal, skin and saliva samples from real-life sexual violence crimes that occurred in the district of Antwerp. This is not only highly favorable but also necessary to have a robust dataset to test out hypotheses and which can function as a solid test set. Being able to sequence 100 sexual assault samples would give as a strong chance to validate our hypotheses and classification model.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Ahannach Sarah

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In this project, we aim to use a combination of bio-informatic and experimental approaches to explore important aspects of niche flexibility and functions of Lactobacillus strains, using the Lactobacillus casei/rhamnosus group as case study. Here, niche-adaptation of these bacteria will be explored for rather unexplored niches, namely fermented vegetables (carrots), the human vagina and the human respiratory tract, starting from isolates, which are in- house available through previous projects. Experiments will include niche-swap experiments, experimental evolution and functional analyses by constructed knock-out mutants. Special attention in this PhD project will be directed towards the role of adhesion in niche colonization. In previous research, a new type of fimbriae was found in L. casei and this will be further explored and molecularly characterized in this PhD project.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Lebeer Sarah
• Fellow: Ahannach Sarah

Research team(s)

Project website

Project type(s)

• Research Project