2025 UKARFF Early-career Researchers talks: Dr Aimee Parker – Microbial modulation for healthy ageing of the eye and brain
07/02/2025
Dr Aimee Parker, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), she is investigating how can we use our gut microbiota to help stay healthy in older age? She expected that age-related decline could be delayed or prevented by changing gut microbiota.
Dr Aimee Parker, Quadram Institute, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
It’s well known that our gut microbiota can influence many bodily systems including the immune system. We also know that the composition and function of our gut microbiota changes in later life. Dr Aimee Parker, from the Quadram Institute, wants to find out whether these age-related changes in our gut microbiota influence how well the eyes and brain function in older age.
To test whether age-related decline could be delayed or prevented by changing the gut microbiota, Aimee carried out faecal microbiota transfers to exchange the gut microbiota of young, middle-aged and older mice. When mice received gut microbiota from an older mouse, their eyesight and brain function continued to decline. Conversely, when older mice received gut microbiota from younger mice, eye and brain inflammation was reduced and function was protected. Next, Aimee is looking into what specifically within the young gut microbiota is having this effect, whether it’s particular microbial species or the by-products they release.
Meet the speakers
Dr Aimee Parker
Aimee is a BBSRC Fellow at the Quadram Institute. After completing her PhD in Immunology at the University of Cambridge, she moved to the Institute of Food Research in Norwich to develop interdisciplinary approaches to intestinal stem behaviour in health and disease. As a researcher at the Quadram Institute, her work has determined a key role for the gut microbiota in regulating age-associated inflammation. Her current and future work aims to determine how we can modulate the microbiota to protect the ageing eye and brain.