Many of you microbiome aficionados out there may already be aware of a very useful online resource for papers and articles about the role of the microbiome in health and disease – it’s called Microbiome Digest – Bik’s Picks. It used to be run exclusively...
I’ve just come across this excellent article in the current issue of PNAS – by science writer Megan Scudellari. The article is liberally sprinkled with quotes from the doyen of the so-called “old friends” hypothesis, Graham Rook of University...
Why do we still have an appendix? Measuring only 10 cm long and 7 mm wide, it must be one of the most troublesome vestigial organs in the human body. A quarter of a million cases of appendicitis were accounted for in the US in the five years between 1979 and 1984 and...
For a few years now, Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown from ASU has been researching whether the microbiota are implicated in autism spectrum disorder, either by affecting a range of measurable behavioural characteristics of ASD or by affecting the gastro-intestinal discomfort...
[See all essays on this Hot Topic] A few weeks ago, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly announced that their latest Phase II trial for a drug named solanezumab, which is designed to flush beta-amyloid protein out of the brain and thereby ameliorate the symptoms of...
