Few studies have investigated the overall gene functions harbored by the resident microbial populations and their relation to patient’s lung disease status. The researchers will complete the bioinformatics analysis of the microbiome dynamics on the airway microbiome in CF patients that they have already started in the pilot project FFC#14/2015; then they want to identify microbiome composition and changes related to severe decline of the human CF disease and in particular to characterize the influence of external factors such as antibiotic therapy and respiratory exacerbation. Key microbiome signatures and novel biomarkers related to patients’ status will be searched. Finally, the dynamics of the lung microbiome will be studied also in wild type and CF mice, in the naïve status and after chronic infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, with the aim to explore the possibility to therapeutically manipulate lung microbiome communities.