Tracing microbes between individuals towards personalized oral health care
Sunday, December 12, 2010 - 17:30
in Health & Medicine
The human body is home to a complex ecosystem of microbes increasingly recognized as having a critical role in both health and disease. Viruses can attack and change the composition of bacterial communities, yet little is known about how this might influence human health. In a study published online today in Genome Research, scientists have performed the first metagenomic analysis of a bacterial immune system in humans over time, finding that the defenses of the oral microbiome are unique and traceable, information that could help personalize oral health care in the future.