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Thursday, May 19, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS
By IRENE PARK
Daily Summer News Editor
Ed Yong, an award-winning
science writer for The Atlantic, and
Jack Gilbert, a professor of surgery at
the University of Chicago, discussed
how microbes —communities of
microscopic organisms that live
on or in people, plants, soil, oceans
and the atmosphere — affect life
forms on Earth, and how they can
be manipulated to improve human
health during a session titled
“Invisible Influence: Microbiomes
in the World” Monday evening at
the Rackham Amphitheater.
The session was part of the
Michigan Meeting on Microbial
Communities,
a
conference
organized
by
the
Center
for
Microbial Systems, which promotes
the study of microbiology at the
University. The conference, titled
“Unseen Partners: Manipulating
Microbial
Communities
that
Support Life on Earth,” continues
until Wednesday and features
speakers with many different areas
of expertise in microbes.
Last week, the White House
Office of Science and Technology
Policy announced the National
Microbial Initiative, an initiative to
advocate the study of microbiomes.
Dysfunctional microbiomes have
been linked to many human
diseases, disruptions in ecosystems
and
reduced
agricultural
productivity.
Microbes — usually bacteria,
fungi, viruses or protozoa — refer
to any organism that is too small
to be seen with naked eye. Some
microbes are harmful for human
health, as they cause diseases such
as the common cold, chickenpox,
malaria and pneumonia, but others
are beneficial, such as the bacteria
that live in intestines that help
with absorbing nutrients from the
processed food, according to the
National Institutues of Health.
Yong
began
his
talk
by
commenting on how ubiquitous
and important microbes are for
people and ecosystems, though it
might be unsettling and unnerving
to think the human body contains
multitudes
of
microbes.
Yong
mentioned that many animals rely
on microbes for essential tasks, such
as digesting food.
In spite of how important
microbiomes are for human health,
Yong said the current understanding
of microbes is insufficient partly
due their complicated nature. For
example, in some cases it is not
certain whether the change in the
microbiome causes a disease or if
a disease results in a microbiome
change.
Yong
additionally
discussed
the inefficiency of probiotics to
illustrate the complicated nature of
microbiomes. According to Yong,
the bacteria in probiotics might be
too domesticated compared to the
native gut bacteria to survive once
they are in the digestive system,
meaning any probiotic model may
not clearly demonstrate all of the
properties of natural microbiomes.
“The problem with probiotics
… is that they contain highly
domesticated bacteria,” Yong said.
“The benefits (of probiotics) are
unclear at best.”
On the other hand, Yong said
transplanting more than a few
Microbiology
conference features
prominent writer and
surgery professor
ALEXANDRIA BODFISH/Daily
Microbiome expert Ed Yong presented his respective field of study at Rackham on Monday.
See MICROBES, Page 8
Lecture
examines
invisible
impact of
microbes