Project application in disease mechanism research
:Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention(KCDC)

Our project is about modeling the interactions between different strains of bacteria in a given condition, and its goal is to add more and more factors related to their behaviors and ultimately create a model that accurately depicts their behaviors and interactions in the environment.

Therefore, we were interested in whether concurrent infections, or microbial infections with multiple pathogens involved are commonplace, and if our models could be of any use. To obtain information on current situations and researches in the field, we contacted the Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention(KCDC).

We contacted division leader Sungsun Kim and deputy director Sunghan Kim of Bacterial Disease Research division, Center for Infectious Diseases Research in KCDC and conducted an interview regarding the subject.

First of all, simultaneous infection of multiple pathogens are possible, and there are occasional reports of such cases in tick-borne diseases or food-borne diseases. There are also reports of neuraminidases from influenza infections enabling easier invasions of Streptococcus pneumoniae.

However, we received skeptical responses on whether our modeling could be applied to actual cases, since there are numerous factors affecting the infection. In the case of gastro-intestinal infections, for example, the virulence factor between species can differ greatly. Some kinds of bacteria need to amass to millions before causing anything, while others need only tens of microbes to start causing visible symptoms. Furthermore, actual cases vary greatly in both environmental conditions and surrounding biomes. The environment for microbes has enormous differences in different parts of the human body, and the surrounding microbiomes are just as diverse. Finally, some species that cause chronic infections such as tuberculosis can bypass the limitations of growth rates, so although the growth rates of bacteria can be a major index, it does not necessarily represent the infection itself.

In conclusion, we were able to identify a number of factors that need to be added and improved to our model before we can actually utilize it, and we also confirmed the lack of researches and tools in this direction, which calls for additional follow-up researches and improvements on our project.

Project application in Food source assessment and biosafety
:Korea Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS)

Education and exhibition consideration targeting children
:Gwacheon National Science Museum