The Gut Microbiome: A universe inside us

For me personally, the topic of the gut microbiome represents one of my most long-standing scientific interests. In September 1992, I joined the junior scientific research community in the Department of Infectious Diseases at St. Petersburg Pediatric Medical University. The first presentation I made in this community was on the link of gut dysbiosis with diseases in children.
The level of dysbiosis was determined in an old-fashioned way: as the ratio between beneficial and pathogenic bacteria, based on the number of colonies that were grown from 1 gram of feces. Analysis of dysbiosis was already very popular at that time, and it was a routine protocol for children with gastrointestinal complaints. Our analysis concluded that gut dysbiosis is a signature of allergies, colic and other infant diseases. Since then, I have considered the gut microbiome an important component of health.

In this lecture, I hope to share with you my excitement about the universe of gut microbes. I will first talk about our current understanding of the role of the microbiome in health and then discuss how we will follow-up this knowledge in the future.

Design: LINE UP boek en media bv | Riëtte van Zwol
Illustrations: Kateryna Onistrat & Alexandra Pitkevich
Cover photo/illustration: Jingyuan Fu
Photo author: Henk Veenstra
Editing: Kate McIntyre

Published by University of Groningen Press
Broerstraat 4
9712 CP Groningen
https://ugp.rug.nl/