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ConnectISB researchers and their collaborators are looking beyond the one-drug, one-solution approach that has thus far failed in Alzheimer’s disease research. Instead, they are focusing on other promising research avenues, such as the possible role of the gut microbiome in dementia.
ISB researchers examined the associations between the gut microbiomes of about 3,400 people and roughly 150 host characteristics. The team looked at diet, medication use, clinical blood markers, and other lifestyle and clinical factors, and found evidence that variations of the gut microbiome are associated with health and disease.
Everybody pees and poops. What if there was a way to use the byproducts of our everyday bodily functions to understand the general health of a population? That is exactly what MIT’s Dr. Eric Alm is pursuing. In an ISB-Town Hall Seattle live stream, Alm discussed the promise of this novel form of public health tracking.
Freaked out about a “germy” bathroom? You don’t need to be. ISB Assistant Professor and microbiome researcher Dr. Sean Gibbons was featured prominently in an article, headlined “The Germiest Place in your Bathroom Isn’t Your Toilet,” published online by TIME.
The human microbiome is a relatively new area of research, and there are numerous questions surrounding it. What is the human microbiome? Can we change it? Does it make us sick? Keep us well? ISB Assistant Professor and microbiome researcher Dr. Sean Gibbons answers these questions — and many more.
Members of the Moritz lab, as part of an international consortium centered in Bolzano Italy, reports this week in Cell, “Current Biology”, a multi-omic approach to identify the stomach contents and microbiome of the 5300 year old Mummy, Oetzi, the Iceman from the Oetzal Alps on the Austrian/Italian border.
“This new organ that we’re coming to recognize as the microbiome is part and parcel to the functionality of the whole system, and if it breaks down, if it starts to fall apart, we start to get sick,” said Dr. Sean Gibbons, ISB’s newest faculty member, in a WGBH Forum Network presentation.
Dr. Sean Gibbons has joined ISB as our newest faculty member. Gibbons’ new position brings a number of changes, including relocating to the Pacific Northwest from the Northeast. Read on for a Q&A with Gibbons that sheds light on his research career to date, areas of study and even a hidden talent.
Dr. Lee Hood was interviewed by Dr. Norman Swan, of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, for the "Health Report" show. The interview aired on radio on Feb. 24, 2014. Listen to the radio segment. SEGMENT TRANSCRIPT: (Editor's note: ABC identifies Institute for Systems Biology as part of the University of Washington in the audio and in the transcript. ISB is an independent nonprofit organization and NOT a part of the UW.)…
Here’s a piece adapted from Michael Pollan’s latest book “Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation” which discusses how processed foods and the modern diet have made us more obese and more likely to get sick. He makes a case for eating more fermented foods that haven’t been pasteurized – probiotics, live-culture foods – in order to get the good bacteria back in our guts. At ISB, the microbiome is an…
What You Saw in the News: 2012 was the year of the microbiome. Feature stories about the trillions of microbes found in our environment and on/in human bodies appeared in publications such as The Economist, the New York Times, The Scientist, The New Yorker, Wired, Scientific American, and Discover. The NIH’s Human Microbiome Project published a report in Nature. The Earth Microbiome Project held its first international conference, which took…