Transcriber: Emma Gon Reviewer: David DeRuwe
Did you know that each of our bodies are fancy mobile homes
for trillions of microorganisms we call the microbiota?
Or more commonly, you may know them as the microbiome.
So our microbiome is an immensely diverse collection of different types
of microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi,
and many of them live on our skin or in our nose,
but most of them are hanging out in our gut, living their best life.
And this is the same area that our food ends up
after it passes through our stomach.
So you may be thinking,
“Gross, I need to get rid of these trespassers.”
But in fact, our microbiome is generally good for us.
It helps us digest our foods, boost our immunity,
and sometimes, it even helps prevent against conditions
such as obesity, allergy, and asthma.
Now, the type of microorganisms in each of us differs.
It’s sort of like you have your own designer microbiome,
and these types of microorganisms can also fluctuate due to many things
such as stress, our diet, or medicines we take, like antibiotics.
There’s even increasing evidence that there are beneficial effects
for having a higher diversity of microorganisms in our gut,
and what’s amazing is that several life-altering conditions now,
such as diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease,
autism, and cancer have all now been associated with changes
in the types of microorganisms in our microbiome.
Research is also showing that these changes, importantly,
might be leading to disease, causing a condition to worsen,
or changing our response to treatment.
So despite these clear ties between our microbiome, health, and disease,
we still have very little understanding
for how these resident microorganisms communicate with our body.
So I'm a mom and a veterinarian,
but the reason that I’m speaking with you here today
is because I’m also a scientist,
and I work in the immunology division of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital,
researching how our microbiome communicates with cells in our body.
Specifically, our lab research program
investigates how our microbiome interacts with us.
Essentially, we want to know what these microorganisms are saying,
and the way these microorganisms talk is by producing substances
that then go on to make our cells happy or in some cases, upset.
So currently, we’re investigating multiple pathways
that seem to be sensitive to different types of microorganisms in our microbiome,
and in recent work, we’ve found that there are specific types of bacteria
that actually reside in our gut that can actually eat components of our diet,
break them down into smaller microscopic substances
that then go into our cells and change how our cells behave.
And what’s remarkable is that this process,
constantly being undertaken by bacteria in our gut,
can lead to changes in our body weight
or our immune response during an infection.
And so from this type of research,
we’ve now learned that our health seems to be quite tightly linked
to constant interactions or really an ongoing dialogue with our microbiome.
Therefore, if we can first understand this conversation,
we then may be able to change it or shift it
in a manner to promote health or treat disease.
And this is not so far off.
We are already using microorganisms to some degree as treatment
in the form of probiotics.
These are essentially the good bacteria
that can help keep you healthy.
And then there are things called fecal transplants,
which is basically what it sounds like,
(Laughter)
and the rationale here is that we give a sick patient
a healthy microbiome as a form of treatment.
And this approach is already being undertaken
for certain types of infections,
but I’m guessing that all of us don’t need
or maybe even want a fecal transplant, right?
But there is an arena that we can actually incorporate,
and this involves our diet.
What we eat can significantly impact
what our microbiome is producing and saying to ourselves,
and so ongoing studies by us and other scientists
are now trying to determine how foods impact our microbiome
in a manner that can create a healthy dialogue with ourselves.
So from this type of research, in the future,
we may not only consume foods based on their nutritional value or taste,
but may also pick foods that promote a healthy microbiome.
And in recent work, we have found that foods such as nuts or carrots
can actually tell our bacteria how to then tell cells
to repair our gut lining or fight an infection.
But these are just two examples.
We think these types of connections occur with many of the foods that we eat.
Ultimately, this line of science will hopefully lead to new strategies
for how we can modify diet
or use products made by bacteria in order to provide
practical approaches for how we can harness
the power of our microbiome to promote health and treat disease.
So there is a lot going on in these fancy mobile homes
that we call our bodies,
and it’s certainly complicated and can feel overwhelming.
But just know that you and your microbiome are working together
and understanding this relationship is really just another step
towards simplifying what we need as individuals
in order to improve our well-being.
Now, I hope that wasn’t too much to digest.
(Laughter)
Thank you.
(Applause)