Researchers believe they have formed the first comprehensive genetic map of human body's microbes. This map creates possibilities of new advances in research and treatment of disease.
The federally-funded $170-million Human Microbiome Project also sheds light on the drone of microbial activity inside human body by cataloging the genes contained within this zoo of life. The research is very important because now the scientists and researchers have a reference point of how a healthy human body's microbes actually look like. Scientists are now planning to study how the changes in a person's microbiome can cause illness. In the last few years, some studies have managed to some potential links to asthma, inflammatory bowel disease and obesity conditions.
The Human Microbiome Project was done to understand bacteria and other organisms better, how they play a critical role in different infection and diseases. Scientists already knew that human body is holding trillions of micro-organisms but they didn't know about all the bacteria and how it differs from person to person. "This is really a new vista in biology," Phillip Tarr, the director of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "The microbial population is providing some benefit to the human host and in turn the human host is harboring those bacteria and enabling them to replicate and be stable and thrive." Tarr is one of the leaders of the project, which involved 200-odd researchers at 80 institutions.
"It's likely this work will lead to new treatments for [the inflammatory bowel disorder] Crohn's disease, new treatments for diabetes and metabolic diseases, new treatments for even other diseases, like eczema," Michael Fischbach, a biologist at the University of California, San Francisco said. Fischbach is not related with this project. He believes it will take a long time to see new drugs as there are still some things to sort out.
If everything goes according to plan, people can expect to see new medicines and food, strategies that will help them to maintain proper health and treat diseases.
