Marjane Villafranca's scientific contributions

... Nosocomial infections remain a leading cause of adverse outcomes in critical illness including mortality, prolonged hospitalization and resource utilization 1,2,43 . The association between microbiota dysbiosis and nosocomial infections has led to clinical trials of microbiota-modifying therapies in critically ill patients, but studies have been hindered by a limited understanding of the mechanisms linking dysbiosis with infections, resulting in untargeted approaches such as probiotics and digestive tract decontamination that have yielded modest or negligible benefits 44,45,46 , as well as possible harm in this vulnerable patient population [47][48][49] . Our findings reveal that pathological microbiota alterations in critical illness may render the host more susceptible to infections via induction of immune dysfunction, suggesting that microbiota therapeutics in the ICU should be targeted at correcting the drivers of microbiota-immune metasystem dysbiosis. ...