In recent years, the human microbiome has gotten a lot of press. We have read about how our gut microbes affect our eating habits, immune system and mind. But what about the microbes that surround us indoors? We spend most of our time indoors, at home, in our cars, in offices and other buildings. We interact with these "built environments" (BE) extensively, leaving microbes from our skin on the surfaces we touch and also acquiring microbes that are already present on these surfaces. Airborne microbes from the outdoors or from humans also accumulate on these surfaces and travel throughout our indoor spaces. In a recent paper from the Caporaso lab, the individual factors that affect the microbiome of BEs were explored. (more…)
Year: 2016
Microbe of the month: Helicobacter pylori
The first Microbe of the Month is Helicobacter pylori, my favorite bacterium during my graduate school years.
Discovery of Helicobacter pylori
Stomach ulcers were traditionally thought to be caused by stress. However, in 1982 Barry Marshall and Robin Warren discovered that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori for short) is actually the cause of these ulcers. These scientists found that almost all stomach biopsies from patients with gastric ulcers also contained this helical shaped bacteria (hence the name Helicobacter). Barry and Marshall's discovery was met with much skepticism at the time. Desperate to prove that H. pylori was indeed the cause of gastric ulcers, Marshall drank a culture of H. pylori and developed gastric ulcers that were accompanied by H. pylori in his gastric biopsies. He then cured himself of the infection by taking antibiotics. For this discovery Marshall and Warren were awarded the Novel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2005. (more…)