Parts 1 and 2:
- How microbes can affect our hormones
- How a particular bacteria influences our body to make morphine
- How a few bacteria can kill off our appetite hormones
- The unknowns regarding transfer of bacteria into the placenta
- How we are each carrying around an ecosystem in our body unique to us, we are each a micro ecosystem of our own on the planet. We think of ourselves as a body and soul but this changes perspective about what our body actually is.
- How 50% of world has H. pylori implying there’s an evolutionary advantage to having, it must have symbiotic relationships
- How in pregnancy the body has the same conditions as found in metabolic syndrome, but it affects the mother and baby in a positive way rather than negative.
- How probiotics could potentially be as powerful as antibiotics once the mechanisms of the gut microbiomes are understood better
- Shocked at how little research has been done on hospital inpatient microbiomes
- Happy to see how two researchers linked cervical cancer to HPV and saved thousands of lives.
- Shocked how two researchers’ research and hypotheses about the correlation between bacteria and GI diseases were rejected by peers for years, then ended up with the Nobel Prize fifteen years later for their work.
- How closely the microbiome interacts with the immune system and details with that
- Surprised at the number of different species of dominant pathogenic bacteria found in PICU patients, I would like to see studies done across hospitals. Because they found the same pathogenic bacteria regardless of their individual illnesses.
Part 3: The unknowns regarding the transfer of bacteria into the placenta and breastmilk.
It is well known that there is a barrier between the fetus and the mothers immune system. It was thought that the mothers immune systems and digestive system, which are directly involved with microbiota, were kept separate. We read that they have found bacteria from mothers with oral disease in the microbiome of their fetus’s meconium. There were other examples of mothers bacteria being found in the infant microbiome, I think mainly in their meconium, and they are not sure about the mechanisms of the transfer. I think it’s very important to understand better how mothers bacteria is getting through the placental barrier. I recall an experiment where bacteria from the mother was tagged and they later found some of it in the baby’s meconium.
I am also interested in looking more thoroughly into how individual our microbiomes actually are, maybe find a way to blueprint the array of species in each individual’s gut. I would like to look into the methods used to analyze individual full gut microbiomes and see if there is a correlation with psychological, cultural, lifestyle differences. Kind of like medical anthropology.
Part 4: To begin preparing for my final paper, I will research publications in the area of my interest, look to see if there are missing aspects to research, or an area that needs more research. Because the transfer of bacteria from mother to fetus isn’t well understood, there is definitely controversy over how it happens. I will also look into research regarding the establishment of individual microbiomes, how they are analyzed and look to see if any studies have been done on correlations between particular types of microbiomes with culture and behavior.
