Prof. Spacova’s team investigates beneficial microorganisms found at the interface between the human body and the environment, and how they can benefit human health. An important bioscience engineering goal is to develop sustainable microbiome-based solutions for urban health challenges, especially against respiratory viruses. Her team’s methodology involves clinical studies in collaboration with clinicians, immunological and microbiological assays on human samples and bacterial isolates, immune induction in human respiratory and immune cell lines, and fluorescence-based techniques.