Discussion leaders: Jack Fitzgibbons & Gary Banks
The microbiome is the genetic material of all the microbes (bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses) that live on and inside the human body.
It is one of the most promising, yet challenging topics in modern medicine.
The Microbiome is a new field with implications for many different areas including obesity research, causes of arthritis, intestinal ailments and psychiatric illnesses.
Here’s a short introduction to get you started.
https://depts.washington.edu/ceeh/downloads/FF_Microbiome.pdf
Introduction from MSK:
https://www.mskcc.org/blog/what-your-microbiome-and-three-things-could-change-it
Good overview of the microbiome and the many diseases influenced by it.
https://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/microbiome/disease/
Amish vs Hutterites – asthma
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/opinion/health-secrets-of-the-amish.html
The Gut Microbiome and Its Role in Obesity
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5082693/
New Study Reveals Gut Microbes May Help Protect People Having a Bone Marrow Transplant
https://www.mskcc.org/press-releases/new-study-reveals-gut-microbes-may-help-protect-people-having-bone-marrow-transplant
From Harvard:
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/magazine/magazine_article/bugs-in-the-system/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Chan-Facebook-General
From the Harvard Medical School
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/microbiome
Antibiotics can disrupt the gut ecosystem for months.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/21/well/live/does-the-gut-microbiome-ever-fully-recover-from-antibiotics.html?searchResultPosition=9
Cancer Immunotherapy and the Microbiome. A 6 minute video from Johns Hopkins
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/profiles/results/directory/profile/0002419/cynthia-sears
Prostate Cancer Therapy and the Gut Microbiome
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/brady-urology-institute/patient-information/books-publications/articles/prostate-cancer-therapy-and-the-gut-microbiome
Are ready for a challenge? This is from journal Nature. Not easy for the layman. The first couple of pages give a good idea how complex and active a research area this is.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1238-8
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-019-0074-5
Animals
The microbiome is important in animals. For instance, here is an article where altering the microbiome of a cow reduced methane production by 95%.
https://animalmicrobiome.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42523-019-0004-4
Just to give you an idea how active the research is in animals. Here are 4 journals that are starting up.
Antimicrobial resistance and the microbiome
Microbiome, Environmental Microbiome and Animal Microbiome are coming together to launch a special series inviting authors to submit their research pertaining to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the microbiome.
The emergence and spread of AMR can only be described as a catastrophic problem for human and animal health. It is projected that there would be more deaths due to AMR than cancer by 2050.
During the last decade a large number of studies have reported the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARG) and defined in detail how these are mobilised between pathogens and also within communities of bacteria. The impact of antibiotics on microbiomes particularly those of humans and animals is a cause for concern and can alter physiology quite dramatically. In addition the spread of ARG to these microbiomes has been reported and occurs on a global scale clearly indicated in studies of sewage and waste water treatment plants. Further spread may occur under selective conditions in the presence of antibiotics in sewage and other biocides such as detergents both of which could cause significant changes in diversity. We need to understand the impacts of ingression of ARG into microbiomes and consider the wider issue of AMR spread into the environment.
The importance of human microbiomes is indisputable now as many new aspects of their roles have emerged in the past few years and continue to build a complex picture of metabolic interactions with their hosts. Similarly, animal and plant microbiomes studies have provided an exciting view into the potential benefits of healthy, diverse and stable microbiomes for sustainable agriculture. Understanding the persistence and spread of ARG in agricultural and other food production systems such as aquaculture will be critical for food safety and production. We are just beginning to reveal the importance of microbial assemblages in the environment for both bioremediation and biodegradation in addition to the vital roles played in nutrient cycles. Antimicrobial agents can have impact on all these activities in addition to spreading new gene combinations due to the rapid mobilisation of ARGs due to the highly selective effects of antibiotic therapy. Whilst some antibiotics are natural products others are xenobiotics and remain and persist in the environment and mobile ARG will spread as a result of selection. Most naturally occurring resistance genes are chromosomal and further work is needed to investigate these impacts.
Microbiomes may work syntrophically to degrade recalcitrant compounds and recent research has demonstrated the emergence of antibiotic biodegraders within the environment and these bacteria may provide the answer to reduce the persistence of antibiotics and their detrimental effects in nature. By understanding the natural role of antibiotics produced in nature we may find the clues to avoiding the arms race of ever increasing resistance in the face of novel drugs, streptomycin production gene clusters are still found in soil streptomycetes and were dated thought to have emerged several million years ago yet they are still apparently useful in nature today. Further research will inform new ways to administer antibiotics, new types of drugs and new ways to combat resistance.
This is a research are for our an upcoming speaker, Dr. Sarah Kahn
The microbiota–gut–brain axis
Our understanding of the complex and bidirectional signalling relationship between the gastrointestinal tract and the brain is evolving quickly. This relationship, dubbed the microbiota-gut-brain axis, is thought to be involved in many aspects of homeostasis in addition to the pathogenesis of several diseases, ranging from neurological and degenerative conditions to autoimmune diseases.
This cross-journal collection brings together both human and animal studies covering all aspects of the microbiota-gut-brain axis’ role in health and disease, as well as its therapeutic potential. The participating journals, spanning both neuroscience and microbiology, are listed below.
Submissions should be formatted according to individual journal guidelines. Please indicate clearly in the cover letter that the manuscript is to be considered for this collection.
All manuscripts will undergo standard peer review, and must be submitted through the relevant journal’s online submission system by 31st December 2019.
Engineering optimal livestock microbiomes
The human population is predicted to reach approximately 9.7 billion by 2050. Consequently, ensuring future food availability, safety and nutritional content is crucial. Gastrointestinal tract microbiomes of livestock animals play a crucial role in processing dietary components and providing the host with the necessary nutrients for growth. Recently, the terminology of the holobiont (the host and its microbiota) has been introduced in recognition of the importance of the interactions between the host and its microbiota and their influence on host phenotype, and the need to consider them as one unit.
Whilst livestock holobionts have evolved over millennia, this is often does not result in increased food availability through enhanced production, as the GI tract microbes prioritise their own nutrition before the nutrition of the host. This means that feed conversion is often sub-optimal and therefore understanding what is the ‘best’ microbiome from a production perspective, and biotic and abiotic factors which govern microbiome composition, are key to our ability to feed the human population in the future.
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