Viewing ourselves as an ecosystem like a city in river valley or a holobiont (a systems biology approach) makes it much easier to understand how humans and microbes have evolved together to perform functions the neither could do alone. However, this relationship goes far past these simple associations. Just as early man irrigated and domesticated … Continue reading →

The city world in our gut is not a primitive culture. Rather it is a sophisticated conglomeration of a myriad of species that have all coevolved to live together (perhaps not in perfect harmony but in functional unity). In the past, the colon was considered an organ merely for absorbing water from indigestible material that … Continue reading →

Until recently, it’s been difficult to study the mucus layers in the GI tract because upon exposure to air, the mucus loses all of its liquid content and adheres in a thin sheen to human epithelial cells[i].  Most of the actual knowledge of the mucus layers comes from studies on the colon. We do know … Continue reading →