Largely unstudied area of science examined

UofC researcher working with U.S. consortium to catalogue microbes

Posted May 21, 2010
By Jordanna Heller

Mike Surette, PhDEach one of us is a walking ecosystem of microbes.  And those communities of microbes or microbiomes are unique in every person. Those communities are essential for human health -- in the early development of the immune system, for digesting food, and are our first line of defense against infection.

Until now microbiomes have been largely unstudied. Four years ago the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States initiated an enormous undertaking – to catalogue the microbes in the human body.  The first part of that initiative is published in the May 21 edition of Science. 

The Faculty of Medicine’s Mike Surette, PhD, is one of two Canadian researchers who are part of the Human Microbiome Jumpstart Reference Strains Consortium. So far the consortium has processed 239 genomes and sequenced three quarters of those. The initial goal is to produce and sequence 900 bacteria.

Airstream bacteriaKnowing and understanding the human microbiome is a crucial first step to getting an accurate description of the microbes. “Think of trying to understand human physiology without having well defined cell types,” says Surette, a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, a member of the Snyder Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation and a Canada Research Chair in Microbial Gene Expression.

Within a healthy human body microbial cells are estimated to outnumber human cells by a factor of ten to one, and while it’s a daunting number, it is also very exciting for researchers. 

“This has been a great opportunity for our lab. We are one of the few groups in the world that have been actively trying to grow these organisms and being part of the Jumpstart program has allowed us to get genome sequences for many of these bacteria,” says Surette.  “What all of this means is that understanding and promoting a healthy microbiome will impact almost all aspects of human health and disease.  In some ways since this community is unique to each of us, it adds a whole new level to personalized medicine.”