Scientists grow personalized collections of intestinal microbes

Washington University scientists have grown personalized collections of intestinal microbes in the laboratory. The research sets the stage for identifying new probiotics and evaluating whether microbe transplants can restore the natural balance of intestinal bacteria in “sick” microbial communities.

Each of us carries a unique collection of trillions of friendly microbes in our intestines that helps break down food our bodies otherwise couldn’t digest.


This relationship between humans and their microbes is generally a healthy one, but changes to the mix of microbes in the digestive tract are suspected to play a role in obesity, malnutrition, Crohn’s disease and other ailments.

Now, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown they can grow and manipulate personalized collections of human intestinal microbes in the laboratory and pluck out particular microbes of interest.

The research sets the stage for identifying new probiotics and evaluating in preclinical trials whether microbe transplants can restore the natural balance of intestinal bacteria in “sick” microbial communities.

The research, by Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor and director of the Center for Genome Sciences & Systems Biology, and his team is reported online March 21 in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


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Brain Inspector

Photo by: Michael C. Purdy

Simeon Schlaggar examines a human brain at NeuroDay March 5 at the Saint Louis Science Center as his father, Bradley Schlaggar, MD, PhD, the A. Ernest and Jane G. Stein Associate Professor of Neurology, looks on. Simeon is also the son of Christina Lessov-Schlaggar, PhD, research assistant professor of psychiatry. The event, jointly sponsored by Washington University and the Saint Louis Science Center, was an opportunity for the public to learn about brain science and was staffed in part by Washington University graduate students. Other activities included using a brain-computer interface to play a video game, operating a model of nerve cell communication that used jelly beans and light switches, making a model nerve cell from pipe cleaners, and participating in exercises that highlighted the way the brain analyzes sensory data. NeuroDay was part of International Brain Awareness Week, created by the DANA Alliance for Brain Initiatives and the Society for Neuroscience