Recognising the importance of the gut microbiota in human health and disease is one of the most exciting breakthroughs in clinical medicine in the last decade. To a large extent, this has been due to new ‘omic’ technologies that have facilitated large-scale analysis of the genetic and metabolic profile of this microbial community, revealing it to be comparable in influence to a new organ in the body and offering the possibility of a new route for therapeutic intervention or even more excitingly disease prevention.
My group is interested in host/microbial interactions, with particular emphasis on understanding the contribution of microbes to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD comprises two main clinical entities, ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD) and has a rising incidence worldwide, affecting more than 75,000 Australians. It is an incurable chronic disabling disease often affecting young and productive members of society, with an annual cost to society of >$2.7 billion.
In this talk I will discuss the current knowledge relating to the role of gut microbiota in IBD including our recent work looking at pre-symptomatic microbial signatures. I will also discuss the evidence for microbial manipulation therapies for IBD treatment/management.