The Microbiome Project News and Research

RSS

The human microbiome refers to the entire community of microorganisms that live on or in the human body. More specifically, it refers to all of the genes in these microbes, which include bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses.

Enteric microbiome affects disease susceptibility, provides therapeutic target for food-borne diseases: Research

At any given time, trillions of tiny microbes some helpful, some harmful are living on and in humans, forming communities and outnumbering the body's own cells tenfold. Using a $7.3 million federal grant that establishes a new cooperative research center at Michigan State University, a group of investigators is studying the microbes that live in our intestines, analyzing the role they play in food- and water-borne illnesses that kill millions of people each year worldwide.

20 Aug 2010

Smoking cessation effectively alter subgingival microbiome in patients on periodontal therapy: Study

Patients with chronic gum disease who quit smoking in addition to undergoing nonsurgical therapy not only demonstrated a lower abundance of harmful oral pathogens, but also an increase in health-associated bacteria. The researchers from The Ohio State University, Columbus Ohio, and Newcastle University, United Kingdom report their findings in the July 2010 issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

22 Jul 2010

Twelve residents receive one-year fellowship grant to study medical dermatology

Twelve dermatology residents from leading medical schools around the country each received a $40,000, one-year fellowship grant to study medical dermatology. The fellowships, awarded by the National Psoriasis Foundation, provide support to eligible institutions to develop and enhance opportunities for physicians training for careers in medical dermatology.

1 Jul 2010

Mayo Clinic, University of Illinois announce strategic alliance for technology-based health care

Mayo Clinic and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are announcing a strategic alliance designed to promote a broad spectrum of collaborative research, development of new technologies and clinical tools, and design and implementation of novel education programs. Both parties recently signed an agreement establishing the formal relationship.

23 Jun 2010

Interactions between human and microbial cells determine health, physical well-being: Researchers

At birth, your body was 100-percent human in terms of cells. At death, about 10-percent of the cells in your body will be human and the remaining 90-percent will be microorganisms. That makes you a "supraorganism," and it is the interactions between your human and microbial cells that go a long way towards determining your health and physical well-being, especially your resistance to infectious diseases.

11 Jun 2010

Delicate balance of microbes in vagina can vary between healthy women: New study

The delicate balance of microbes in the vagina can vary greatly between healthy women, according to a new study led by the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Institute for Genome Sciences. Researchers hope further study will lead to personalized reproductive medicine for women, allowing doctors to tailor each woman's treatment and health maintenance strategies to her individual microbial make-up.

4 Jun 2010

Research initiative to study impact of microbes on human health, disease

The human species is dependent for its survival on the billions of microorganisms that inhabit multiple environmental niches within and on the human body. While microbes are commonly associated with diseases and infections, they are also vital in essential, beneficial roles such as digestion, where they help synthesize vitamins and ferment complex indigestible carbohydrates.

29 Apr 2010

Leading researchers to present key findings of genomic research at international conference

BioMed Central recently launched 'Beyond the Genome', an international conference which brings together leading researchers and industry representatives from around the globe.

18 Mar 2010

Study: Bacteria, fungi and other microbes live in our gut are essential contributors to good health

The thousands of bacteria, fungi and other microbes that live in our gut are essential contributors to our good health. They break down toxins, manufacture some vitamins and essential amino acids, and form a barrier against invaders. A study published today in Nature shows that, at 3.3 million, microbial genes in our gut outnumber previous estimates for the whole of the human body.

4 Mar 2010

Study suggests why circumcised men less likely to become infected with HIV

A PLoS One study published Tuesday sheds new light on why men who have been circumcised are less likely to become infected with HIV, ANI/Times of India reports (1/6).

7 Jan 2010

Circumcision lowers HIV risk; changes bacterial community on penis microbiome

Circumcision, which substantially lowers HIV risk in men, also dramatically changes the bacterial communities of the penis, according to a study led by scientists at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Johns Hopkins University and published Jan. 6 in the scientific journal PLoS ONE.

5 Jan 2010

$12.2 million grant from NIH for research on the sexually transmitted bacteria chlamydia

Perhaps the most comprehensive, multi-institutional study yet of the sexually transmitted bacteria chlamydia is under way at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB).

29 Oct 2009

U.S. Department of Defense funds Rush University Medical Center for gastrointestinal microorganism research

The human body contains billions of microorganisms, and microbial cells found in the human gut are estimated to outnumber human cells by ten-to-one in healthy adults. However, little is known about the ways in which these minute life forms influence health and disease.

28 Oct 2009

LANL and international researchers propose new genome sequence strategies

A team of geneticists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, together with a consortium of international researchers, has recently proposed a set of standards designed to elucidate the quality of publicly available genetic sequencing information.

22 Oct 2009

First health study of teenage boys using cellular telephones

A $4.15 million, four-year National Institutes of Health grant will enable researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine to conduct the first health study of teenage boys using cellular telephones.

16 Jun 2009

Genomic research lays groundwork for new approaches for treating, preventing skin diseases

The health of our skin - one of the body's first lines of defense against illness and injury - depends upon the delicate balance between our own cells and the millions of bacteria and other one-celled microbes that live on its surface.

28 May 2009

Autoantibodies may be created in response to bacterial DNA

Autoimmune diseases have long been regarded as illnesses in which the immune system creates autoantibodies to attack the body itself. But today, researchers at the California non-profit Autoimmunity Research Foundation (ARF) explain that the antibodies observed in autoimmune disease actually result from alteration of human genes and gene products by hidden bacteria.

27 Apr 2009

DNA of uncultured organisms sequenced using novel single cell genome sequencing approach

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences have assembled high quality, contamination-free draft genomes of uncultured biodegrading microorganisms using a novel single cell genome sequencing approach.

22 Apr 2009

Deficiency in vitamin D may exacerbate autoimmune disease

Deficiency in vitamin D has been widely regarded as contributing to autoimmune disease, but a review appearing in Autoimmunity Reviews explains that low levels of vitamin D in patients with autoimmune disease may be a result rather than a cause of disease and that supplementing with vitamin D may actually exacerbate autoimmune disease.

9 Apr 2009

Microbes within gut may hold key to one cause of obesity

In terms of diversity and sheer numbers, the microbes occupying the human gut easily dwarf the billions of people inhabiting the Earth.

19 Jan 2009