Understanding the gut-liver axis: implications for NAFLD prevention and treatment
Posted 29th April 2020 by Liv Sewell
You may have heard; humans are superorganisms. The human large intestine harbors tens of trillions of microbes, which equates to roughly 2 kg of cells. For reference, that’s how much your brain weighs! Within the gut microbiome, it is estimated that there are over 1,000 different species of bacteria.
Gut-brain axis insights: why the microbiota holds therapeutic potential for neuro-developmental disorders
Posted 17th April 2020 by Liv Sewell
Evidence is emerging that there are important connections between the gut microbiome and neurodevelopmental disorders. In a guest post for World Autism Awareness Month this April, Chris Kenji Beer reviews recent discoveries.
Probiotics save the gut microbiome from antibiotics
Posted 15th April 2020 by Joshua Sewell
Antibiotics consumption is increasing worldwide, yet these therapies not only destroy pathogens but also damage our vital intestinal flora.
Exploring the gut-brain axis in neurodevelopmental disorders
Posted 30th March 2020 by Joshua Sewell
In the last decade, research has well established (relatively speaking) the impact of gut microbiota on host physiology and behaviour. We know that the gut and the brain communicate bidirectionally. The gut-brain axis includes nerval, endocrine and immunologic pathways. What is less well established is whether alterations in gut microbial composition can affect brain structure and function in neurodevelopmental disorders.
Probiotics Congress: Europe Presentation Slides
Posted 1st July 2019 by Joshua Sewell
Following the Probiotics Congress: Europe, we have made the following presentation slides from Jean-Francois Brugère, Grégory Lambert, Bruno Pot and Koen Venema available.
Discovering the dynamics of prophage induction in the gut ecosystem
Posted 8th April 2019 by Joshua Sewell
The human gut is a complex ecosystem dominated by bacteria and their viruses, i.e. phages. Approximately half of the viruses that reside in our intestine are derived from lysogens, bacteria that contain normally dormant viruses – prophages — in their genome.
Gut Microbiome analysis – Getting it right
Posted 8th March 2019 by Joshua Sewell
The cascade of new discoveries relating health and disease to our gut microbiome has spurred the notion that we now find ourselves in the middle of a “microbiome revolution”. Just to mention some recent examples, mechanisms have been demonstrated for gut bacteria contributing to Parkinson’s disease,[1] determining response to immune checkpoint inhibitor cancer therapy,[2] and even autistic behavior when fecal material from autistic children was transplanted into mice.[3]
Harnessing the power of RNA for a healthy gut microbiome
Posted 13th February 2019 by Joshua Sewell
I was a scientist at Los Alamos National Lab in the US when I identified a science-based personalized diet that completely cured my early onset arthritis. I realized that the gut microbiome would play a central role in personalized nutrition and redirected all my science projects towards it. We desperately needed better technology for analysing the gut microbiome and metatranscriptomics offers the best value. It is better than 16S or metagenomic sequencing in two important aspects: