Probiotics versus Microbiome Engineering (Biotechnology and Society 2016)

Required Reading/Viewing

 * 1)   "How our microbes make us who we are". (17 min) Talk by Rob Knight about the human microbiome, Feb 2014.
 * 2)   "Microbiome engineering." Brief Sonnenburg article on potential applications of microbiome engineering.
 * 3)   Achievements and future prospects in microbiome engineering.
 * 4)  NIH Microbiome Project. Ethical concerns of microbiome research and probiotics.  Read abstract for each section.

Extra Links for the Policy Czar

 * 1)  Fecal microbiome transplant in the treatment of C. difficile
 * 2)  History of fecal transplants.
 * 3)  Slideshow summary of fecal microbiome transplants by gastroenterologists (some medical jargon, but informative).
 * 4)  Do it yourself fecal transplants. Yep.

Extra Links for the Policy Czar

 * 1)   Summary of possible mechanisms relating gut microbiome to obesity.
 * 2)  Recent review critiquing microbiome role in obesity.

Extra Links for the Policy Czar

 * 1)  Behnsen,J., Deriu, E., Sassone-Corsi, M., Raffatellu, M. (2013) Probiotics: Properties, examples, and specific applications. CSH Persp. Med. 3:a010074. Concentrate on the general background and section on E. coli Nissle.
 * 2)   Ou B., Yang Y., Tham W.L., Chen, L., Guo, J., Zhu, G. (2016) Genetic engineering of probiotic Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 for clinical application. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 100:8693-8699.

Extra Links for the Policy Czar

 * 1)  Hillman, J.D. (2002) Genetically modified Streptococcus mutans for the prevention of dental caries. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek 82:361-366.
 * 2)  Oragenics, a company devoted to engineering the oral microbiome.

Additional Links

 * 1)  Scientists swab C-section babies with mothers' microbes