I'm a stem and cancer cell biologist so what the heck do I know about a bunch of bacteria?
Apparently enough to cause a lot of trouble as I've done with a blog post where I've said that I believe that these big microbiome studies that found their way into the NY Times and much of the international media were "fatally flawed".
Perhaps I overstated my case more than a bit and I regret the word "fatal", but there are some serious issues as well as super interesting implications.
What is going on?
First off, just to be on the same page, a microbiome is simply the collection of all the bacteria in a given system (e.g. a human body).
I have a weakness for big projects that tackle cool topics such as the objective of these microbiome studies that cost more than $100 million.
Their goal was to determine the normal or wild type human microbiome....hmm.
This begs the following question:
Apparently enough to cause a lot of trouble as I've done with a blog post where I've said that I believe that these big microbiome studies that found their way into the NY Times and much of the international media were "fatally flawed".
Perhaps I overstated my case more than a bit and I regret the word "fatal", but there are some serious issues as well as super interesting implications.
What is going on?
First off, just to be on the same page, a microbiome is simply the collection of all the bacteria in a given system (e.g. a human body).
I have a weakness for big projects that tackle cool topics such as the objective of these microbiome studies that cost more than $100 million.
Their goal was to determine the normal or wild type human microbiome....hmm.
This begs the following question:
what is a normal or WT human being?
The leaders of the microbiome studies, in my opinion, took a wrong turn when answering this question.
They tried to get "perfectly healthy" people and in so doing ended up with some 200+ final subjects whose microbiomes they analyzed. But I think these subjects do not represent human beings very well and to make matters worse the scientists had 80% of the subjects get dental work BEFORE their microbiomes were analyzed. Yikes. In others to put it simply, these scientists manipulated their research subjects before studying them.
Either I was trained wrong over all these years or that is not the way you are supposed to do science.
Nonetheless, I would guess that much of what the microbiomers concluded was accurate. I hope so.
The studies also raise a dizzying array of neat questions and future endeavors related to, well, germs. Maybe...in fact probably a lot of germs are our friends!
One possibility of this way of thinking is so-called "fecal transplants".
Now I'm not that squeamish, but I was always of the feeling that the mouth and feces should be kept separate. Very far apart in fact, right?
Even so, scientists are already doing fecal transplants and studying the results based on the notion that the microbiomes of some people might colonize the gut of other people, making them healthier....perhaps less prone to GI diseases and maybe even skinnier!
Most of us have probably seen the commercials nowadays for yogurts that have all kinds of beneficial bacteria in them and that's now extended to supplements whereby consumers swallow pills intended quite literally to "infect" or to use a friendlier word "colonize" their guts with specific germs that are supposed to provide healthful outcomes.
A logical future prediction is feces "flavored" yogurt. In others words, yogurt with fecal transplants in it.
The leaders of the microbiome studies, in my opinion, took a wrong turn when answering this question.
They tried to get "perfectly healthy" people and in so doing ended up with some 200+ final subjects whose microbiomes they analyzed. But I think these subjects do not represent human beings very well and to make matters worse the scientists had 80% of the subjects get dental work BEFORE their microbiomes were analyzed. Yikes. In others to put it simply, these scientists manipulated their research subjects before studying them.
Either I was trained wrong over all these years or that is not the way you are supposed to do science.
Nonetheless, I would guess that much of what the microbiomers concluded was accurate. I hope so.
The studies also raise a dizzying array of neat questions and future endeavors related to, well, germs. Maybe...in fact probably a lot of germs are our friends!
One possibility of this way of thinking is so-called "fecal transplants".
Now I'm not that squeamish, but I was always of the feeling that the mouth and feces should be kept separate. Very far apart in fact, right?
Even so, scientists are already doing fecal transplants and studying the results based on the notion that the microbiomes of some people might colonize the gut of other people, making them healthier....perhaps less prone to GI diseases and maybe even skinnier!
Most of us have probably seen the commercials nowadays for yogurts that have all kinds of beneficial bacteria in them and that's now extended to supplements whereby consumers swallow pills intended quite literally to "infect" or to use a friendlier word "colonize" their guts with specific germs that are supposed to provide healthful outcomes.
A logical future prediction is feces "flavored" yogurt. In others words, yogurt with fecal transplants in it.
This may not be as far fetched as it may sound to some.
I also find it fascinating to think that human beings actually consist of a combination of human cells and equal or even greater #s of bacteria living inside and on us. I believe this is a true case of symbiosis, but we know relatively little how these bacteria that are our own symbiots.
A related, equally interesting area is the "virome" of the human body consisting of actual viral particles in our bodies, but also massive amounts of viral DNA in our genomes. What's the scoop there?
Stayed tuned and pass the yogurt! No feces for now please though.
I also find it fascinating to think that human beings actually consist of a combination of human cells and equal or even greater #s of bacteria living inside and on us. I believe this is a true case of symbiosis, but we know relatively little how these bacteria that are our own symbiots.
A related, equally interesting area is the "virome" of the human body consisting of actual viral particles in our bodies, but also massive amounts of viral DNA in our genomes. What's the scoop there?
Stayed tuned and pass the yogurt! No feces for now please though.
