March 12, 2014

Research Update: Battling Infection With Microbes



The human relationship with microbial life is complicated. At almost any supermarket, you can pick up both antibacterial soap and probiotic yogurt during the same shopping trip. Although there are types of bacteria that can make us sick, Caltech professor of biology and biological engineering Sarkis Mazmanian and his team are most interested in the thousands of other bacteria—many already living inside our bodies—that actually keep us healthy. His past work in mice has shown that restoring populations of beneficial bacteria can help alleviate the symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, and even autism. Now, he and his team have found that these good bugs might also prepare the immune cells in our blood to fight infections from harmful bacteria.