One of the many reasons I am a member of the American Society for Microbiology is their dedication not only to excellent science, but science communication and public policy. “Microbes After Hours” is one of their fabulous science communication events. Since 2012, the ASM headquarters in Washington, DC has opened its doors to anyone interested in microbiology for talks, appetizers, and some microbially-fermented beverages. For those who can’t make it to DC, the talks are live streamed through ASM’s MicrobeWorld site. Speakers even take questions via email and twitter at the end of the talk. Fortunately, my mama-scientist, microbe-road trip friend, Robin Munroe, and I made it down in person to the January 28, 2016 Microbes After Hours that featured Dr. Marti Blaser talking about his research and book, Missing Microbes. Read more about his book in this previous post. I was thrilled to finally get my copy of his book signed! Below is our journey in photos compliments of Robin! She also live-tweeted our trip. For future adventures – follow me on Twitter @mostlymicrobes. Microbes After Hours Do you have questions about this or Dr. Blaser’s book? Anything else microbe related? Feel free to ask in the comments section below, fill out a
The Great Yogurt Experiment – Test 1
It’s taken too long for me to actually do it, but now I HAVE!! I’ve made homemade yogurt! Correction – WE experimented with making homemade yogurt! Despite my love of all things microbial and my dislike of spending lots of time cooking, I’ve not really made much fermented foods other than pickles about 15 years ago. Those days are changing! Several friends along the way have encouraged me to make homemade yogurt, but reading the book The Good Gut pushed me over the edge. Certainly we go through a ton of yogurt and heck – what kind of microbe-lover am I to not make fermented foods? Ever since getting pregnant with Emily, my mid-morning snack has been a cup of plain Greek style yogurt that I add fruit to. Yogurt, especially the thicker Greek-style, is the one thing all members in my family enjoy – and so do our microbes. It’s a fabulous substitute for sour cream and often adds depth to butternut squash soup. Funny – reading this – it sounds like I like to cook and am a foodie. Truth is, that’s my husband, but I guess he’s teaching me to appreciate food more nowadays. So – how
How does the probiotic LGG work?
The probiotic LGG works by making resident gut bacteria produce anti-inflammatory products. How do probiotics work? Do they do anything or am I flushing money down the toilet? Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG), one of the most common probiotics available, can improve a variety of digestive disorders [1, 2], psychiatric disorders [3], and atopic dermatitis [4] in infants and children. LGG does not “move in” and establish residence in the gut [5]. It simply passes through. Findings from this study by Eloe-Fadrosh et al. suggests that probiotic bacteria may not need to take up residence in the human gut to be helpful, but that these effects are variable among individuals. Claire Fraser’s research group at the University of Maryland, Institute for Genome Sciences and colleagues at the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children examined samples from an open label study (people knew they were taking a probiotic) to assess safety of the probiotic LGG [6] in healthy, elderly patients. Fecal samples of 12 healthy adults (7 females and 5 males) ages 65 to 80 were collected prior-to, during, and one month after taking the LGG probiotic twice daily. The number of different types of bacteria and genetic activity of the microbiome was compared within and