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0:00
Hello. I'm doctor
Martin Goldberg.
I'm a Senior Lecturer in
Clinical Microbiology at
Birmingham City University.
And I'm in the process of
assembling a series of
lectures which will form
the basis of a course
introducing the subject
of microbiology to
students at Level 4,
but also would be of use to
people in hospitals
or in industry.
Today's lecture is entitled
the Human Microbiome
in Health and Disease
and this is a massive topic.
It's growing very rapidly as
we realize the
immense importance of
the microorganisms that are
associated with our bodies and
the various ways they
impact our health
and well-being.
Today, I'm going to be talking
about some of these examples.
0:53
I provided a few
references that I relate
to the material that I've talked
about in my presentation.
But do be aware that this is
a tiny number of articles, and
there's even a journal published
by BMC on microbiome research,
so this gives you an idea of
what a huge topic
this is becoming.
1:16
What I'm going to cover today is
first of all, explaining
what the microbiome is,
how we investigate
the microbiome,
and how we study it.
Then, we're going to look at how
the microbiome
affects our bodies
and then, finally talk about
factors affecting
our microbiomes.
1:36
First of all, let's
have a look at
what the microbiome is
and a simple definition
as it relates to
the entire microbial population
associated with the human body.
This is not as simple as
it might sound
because the body is
comprised of many
different parts and
the conditions in
these different parts
of the body vary enormously;
and this impacts the
organisms you'll
find associated with
these different areas
such as the pH,
the oxygen levels,
nutrient levels,
moisture levels, and
also innate defenses.
It may surprise you to know
that there are actually
10 times more microorganisms in
our bodies than there
are actual human cells.
In the intestine, for example,
there are 1-2 kilograms
of microorganisms.
If we were to actually
investigate all of
the genetic content associated
with all of these
microorganisms,
we'd probably find that
there's something like
100 times more genes
associated with the
microbiome than
there are actually
in the human genome.
