Incorporating The Microbiome Into DR2 Activities to Inform Health Outcomes

<p>PROJECT ABSTRACTHouston experienced 50 inches of rain and record-breaking, catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Harvey.Importantly, this flooding caused uncontrolled releases into the environment from over a dozen Superfund sitesand several chemical/petroleum facilities. In response to this disaster, we worked with affected communities toadminister health questionnaires, deploy wristbands to detect chemical exposures, and collect biosamples formicrobiome analysis for the first 30 days exposure window after flooding. Under this RFA mechanism, we nowpropose to build on this strong foundation of field experience, early exposure data, and community engagementwith longitudinal time-sensitive sampling of nasal, oral and gut biospecimens from 300 individuals at 6-and 12-months post-Hurricane Harvey. These biospecimens and microbiome data will be used as part of time-sensitive disaster research response (DR2) activities, and stored as a unique resource for future microbiome-environment interaction studies. They will also be integrated with chemical exposure data obtained fromwristband monitoring devices, and health outcome data from questionnaires administered to study participants.The human microbiome is both a target for, and a modifier of, response to environmental exposures.Consequently, microbiome research has begun to make significant contributions to our understanding of howmicrobiome-environment interactions impact risk for disease. Our Overarching Hypothesis is that during majordisasters, such as the Hurricane Harvey flooding, environmental exposures are reflected in the microbiome ofexposed individuals. If correct, this would predict that microbiome-environment interactions will be associatedwith adverse health outcomes, either causally or as correlative biomarkers, and can serve as a target or indicatorfor actionable, post-disaster activities. In Specific Aim 1, we will identify microbiome-environmentinteractions associated with adverse health outcomes. We will focus our initial analysis on the nasalmicrobiome, where we will test the hypothesis that data from the nasal mycobiome can inform both short- andlong-term assessment of respiratory tract health. In Specific Aim 2, we will test the hypothesis thatmicrobiome data better inform flood-related health outcomes than current environmental monitoring. Inthis Aim, we will ask whether microbiome analyses from biospecimens collected over the 12 month post-Harveyperiod reflects mold exposures from the home and effectiveness of remediation, and informs health outcomeassessment by providing data not captured by wristbands or other environmental monitoring. In the future, thesestudies are expected to provide Preliminary Data for research aimed at 1) better understanding the role of themicrobiome on post-disaster health outcomes, 2) identifying microbiome-based biomarkers of exposure(s)and/or health effects, and 3) improving decision-making by stakeholders and DR2 activities in response to futureflood-related disasters.</p>