Congress Centre 28 Great Russell Street London WC1B 3LS
We’re just beginning to understand the remarkable role that the microbes living your gut play in human health, from irritable bowel syndrome and obesity to diabetes and mental health. What are these microbes? What do they do? And how can we look after them, so that they best look after us? Join Kevin Whelan and Alex Almeida, experts in the human gut microbiome, for a fascinating evening looking at the science of gut health followed by a short Q+A session, all hosted by New Scientist Live creative director, Valerie Jamieson.
Talks
Gut microbiome and diet: your route to better gut health
Kevin Whelan, professor of dietetics and head of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London.
Bacteria in the gut play an important role in human health. Numerous gut disorders are associated with alterations in this microbiome and we know these can be modified through diet, including probiotics and prebiotics, and emerging techniques such as faecal transplants in diseased guts.
Although the microbiome was historically perceived as an innocent bystander in our health, identification of its role in gut disorders has challenged this view. This has opened a Pandora’s box of interactions suggesting a role for the microbiome even in extra-intestinal disorders, such as obesity and diabetes, as well as in mental health.
Blueprint of the human gut microbiota
Alex Almeida, postdoctoral fellow at EMBL-EBI and the Wellcome Sanger Institute
The microbes living in your gut can weigh up to 2 kilograms. Yet identifying the myriad microbial species has remained something of a mystery. Many species remain unknown due to their low abundance in the gut or their inability to survive outside of it.
Now biologists are combining genomics and powerful computational tools to uncover new insights into the human gut. So far they have discovered almost 2000 bacterial species, including ones that that have not been seen before. In this talk, Alexandre Almeida describes the extraordinary detective work involved and how a blueprint of the human gut could help us understand human health and disease better.