FAQs about Microbes – and just the Facts

FAQs about Microbes – and just the Facts

Climate change, MRSA, flu, vaccines – sometimes finding reliable, understandable sources of information on these important topics is difficult. Professional organizations, such as the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) or the Microbiology Society (Europe) are excellent resources for accurate information. One of my favorite ASM resources are their FAQs series. They are informative without being overwhelming and are on a nice variety of topics from pathogens (MRSA, flu, West Nile Virus) to environmental issues like oil spills and climate change. Of course, microbes are also important for our food and drinks – so there’s a FAQ about the microbes that make cheese and beer. Finally, the human microbiome and built microbiome (microbiomes of our buildings!) are also included. Take a look at some reliable FAQs about microbes and share them with folks you know.

Missing Microbes and Increased Antibiotic Resistance

Missing Microbes and Increased Antibiotic Resistance

Dr. Martin Blaser’s book Missing Microbes details his observations and hypotheses on how overuse and misuse of antibiotics may be the source of modern non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, asthma, and obesity. The maps of the U.S. colored with obesity and antibiotic prescriptions fit extremely well – and centered on my Southern homeland. Could it be that the obesity epidemic, diabetes, allergies, asthma, and other non-communicable diseases that are centered over the American South are not due to our preference for all things fried or sopped in butter and washed down with a swig of sweet tea? It’s not just due to sitting in front of screens too much. Certainly poor diet and little exercise don’t help. But could an over-use of antibiotics also be to blame?  That was the hypothesis. Obesity Caused by Over Use of Antibiotics? Dr. Martin Blaser from NYU’s experimental research on mice demonstrated drastic changes in the different types of gut bacteria present before and after antibiotic use. More strikingly, when the antibiotic use was discontinued and the bacterial populations rebounded, the bacterial types that did come back were different metabolically. Antibiotics drastically effected the gut microbiome. Does antibiotic somehow set us on a path

You’re mostly microbes!

You’re mostly microbes!

The plagues of our modern society include diabetes, allergies, asthma, obesity, autism, and numerous digestive system disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome, colitis, Crohn’s disease, and celiac disease. The symptoms and difficulties inherent with each of these diseases is different. However, modern molecular biology research techniques have revealed a commonality. People with each of these ailments have a microbiome that is strikingly different from that of healthy people. Micro-bio-what? This blog, Mostly Microbes, explores the interactions between microbes and us, their human hosts. In particular, I focus on the importance of the human microbiome for and during pregnancy, birth, infancy, and early childhood. What is the microbiome? The microbiome is all the microbial cells living in a particular location [1]. In the case of humans, the human microbiome includes over 100 trillion bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live in or on your body [2]. Perhaps as much as ten times more microbes make up your body than human cells [2] (though new estimates [3] put the number of human cells at 3.72 trillion instead of 10 trillion). You are their home. You may have immediately thought “ew- I want to wash my hands now!”, but hold on a minute. The