What is the state of the microbiome field? ISB Assistant Professor Dr. Sean Gibbons recently sat down with UCSD Professor Dr. Jack Gilbert in a virtual fireside chat. The relationship between Gibbons and Gilbert goes “way back” – Gilbert was Gibbons’ PhD advisor at the University of Chicago. In the final ISB-Town Hall Seattle Science Series event of 2021, the two scientists discussed past research, exciting science happening today, promising products and therapies on the horizon, and much more.
Gilbert said he thinks of the microbiome as a living, breathing unit of life that can be found anywhere. “Organisms that have been around for 3.5 to 4 billion years, and have colonized every facet of this world in unique ways,” he said. The field of the microbiome has come along in just the past couple of decades. “We’re just another lump of flesh that microbes have colonized and we’ve had to adapt our entire bodies, our entire body plan, our immune system, it’s all just adaptations to dealing with living in a microbial world or being exposed to microbes all the time,” Gilbert said.
In the early days (19th and 20th century) of microbiology research, scientists focused on “the bad guys,” Gibbons said – the pathogens – which led to a negative connotation of microbes and bugs. But he sees a paradigm shift in the field.
