Sponsors
Show: October 7, 2012:
- Why is workplace-related asthma on the rise?
- Are toothache’s linked to bad grades?
- Should routine ovarian cancer screenings end?
- How does your state fare on the Women’s Health Report Card?
- Will promising treatments soon be available to breast cancer patients newly diagnosed with aggressiv
- What do smart sutures mean for the future of wound care?
- What is the microbiome and how does it help us?
- View all topics for the week
Sound Medicine is brought to you by:
What is the microbiome and how does it help us?
views 770
Air date: October 7, 2012
Host: Barbara Lewis
Interview: George Weinstock, Ph.D., Professor of Genetics and Professor of Molecular Microbiology at Washington University.
For the first time, researchers funded by the National Institutes for Health have mapped out the entirety of the human body’s microbes. This so-called microbiome consists of 100 trillion microbes and 8 million microbial genes. Human cells are outnumbered by bacterial cells by a ratio of 10 to 1. George Weinstock, Ph.D., professor of genetics and professor of molecular microbiology at Washington University St. Louis, shares the pathology behind why microbes can sometimes make us sick but also how they protect us and provide vital functions.
Additional Resources:
- Learn more about the microbiome here.
