With the advent of advanced sequencing technology, we are able to characterize the microflora that lives on and inside of multicellular organisms, including humans. It follows that there are still many unknowns with respect to the function and dynamics of relationships between bacterial communities and their hosts. These bacterial communities, colonizing humans and other organisms with millions of microbes, have captured the interest of the public. Popular news outlets have made the disparate claims that the right human microbiome can act as a panacea and the wrong microbiome is such a calamity that it can destroy an individual's health. This course will look at the true nature of the microbiome, to the extent that current research has revealed. We will discuss both normal and abnormal bacterial community compositions and any related disease states. Similarly, we will cover changes in microbiome composition over time and with respect to host development. In class, we will also consider the microbiomes of other organisms and how the presence and composition of the microbiome relates to disease states and/or life history. |