New York Institute Of Business Technology


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New York Institute Of Business Technology

New York Institute Of Business Technology

About a decade ago, Jeffrey Gordon MD and his colleagues around the world began switching to metagenomics --newly developed culture-independent rapid sequencing technologies-- and were confronted with an astounding variety of previously unknown microorganisms. These included many of the 100 trillion microbes living on humans, the majority them in the gut where they are thought to exert a profound influence on many aspects of our physiology and nutrition.

Germ-free Mice Eat More and Stay Thinner than Regular Mice

Conventional research hinted that obesity had a microbial component; for example, researchers in Gordon's lab at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, knew that "germ-free" mice were leaner than their microbe-laden, conventionally-raised counterparts, even though the germ-free animals were consuming about 30% more calories each day. Moreover, when gut microbes from the conventionally-raised mice were transplanted into germ-free animals there was an abrupt increase in recipient's body fat.

Twin Studies Link Obesity and Gut Microbes in Humans

By 2004 the scientists in Gordon's team had their advanced sequencing technologies up and running and began using metagenomics to identify and compare the microbial genes in mice as well as in the intestines of obese and lean adult identical and fraternal twins. The twin studies showed, not surprisingly, that families share more similar gut microbial communities than strangers and that these microbes are acquired early in life.