Studies of oral microbial communities in patients with immune dysfunction

The study of patients with inborn errors in immunity has dramatically expanded our understanding of the immune system.From these diseases, we can also learn how select immune defects differentially impact the establishment of microbial communities at relevant sites.The oral cavity is inhabited by a complex microbiome, which is essential for the maintenance of health but is also implicated in prevalent oral diseases.Our study focuses in the characterization of bacterial and fungal communities of patients with loss of function STAT3 mutations and healthy controls.To assess microbial diversity, we use 16S rRNA gene based approaches to examine bacterial communities, but also ITS1 basedassays for fungal components. Future studies will explore oral microbial communities using shotgun metagenomic sequencing.