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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

