Oral microbiome, Periodontitis

The oral microbiome contains over 600 species of microbiota. Under normal conditions the predominant phyla are Firmicutes, Bacteriodetes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Fusobacteria. The most abundant bacterial genera in the oral microbiome are members of the genus Streptococcus, but Abitrophia, Gemella, Granulicatella, and Prophyromonas are also extremely common. P. gingivalis is often present in the oral [...]

Infant Skin Microbiome

Much of the research into the human microbiome has focused on the influence of the gut microbiota in health and disease. Other body regions that have been explored more recently include the lungs, airways, and oral cavities as well as the skin surface. While a lot of studies of the skin microbiome have focused on [...]

More Than a Snapshot

The majority of studies of the human microbiome look at the composition of samples from just one time point—a snapshot of a particular situation. This method is useful and has provided us with a lot of information about how the microbiome is conserved across species, how it is affected by probiotics, and how it is [...]

Gulf Research Request for Proposals

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GRI) holds a $500 million fund from British Petroleum (BP) to study the effects of the Deepwater Horizon hydrocarbon release and associated impact on human health and the environment.  Today GRI, led by former NSF head Dr. Rita Colwell, announced a request for research proposals.  Second Genome applauds this environmental responsibility [...]

Bacteria as as Biomarker for Atherosclerosis

On November 2–3, 2009, the National Academy of Sciences held an Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium entitled “Microbes and Health,” and in March, 2011, a collection of papers from the colloquium was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). Over the course of the next few weeks we will be highlighting some [...]

The Oral Microbiome and Tooth Decay

Past blogs have described research into characterising and understanding the relationship between humans and their gut microbiome. However, the gut is not the only location in the body that contains a microbiome. The oral cavity is home to many microbes, with the presence of certain species such as Streptococcus mutans being specifically linked to severe [...]