the estimate for the entire body was thus 100 trillion bacteria. In 1977, Professor Savage's team compared this number to that of human cells (10 trillion), arriving at the now-famous ratio.

and disease in diverse niches of the human body. A major goal of the HMP is the metagenomic characterization of microbial communities from 300 healthy individuals over time. The HMP is focused on ...

The human body has co-evolved with the beneficial microbes that live in the gut (termed the microbiota), resulting in mutually favorable relationships that aid in the digestion of food and ...

Human bacteria don’t actually engraft well in mice ... by adjusting their diet to generate useful metabolites that the body can use. Paul O’Toole is a professor in microbial genomics and ...

Our gut is a bustling hub of activity, home to trillions of microbes that work together with our bodies to keep us healthy. A recent study explores one fascinating aspect of this partnership: how gut ...

A new study has revealed that bacteria in the gut can affect mental health. Experts say that the trillions of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms in the human gut are not only important for our ...

Before we understood that DNA was the genetic code, scientists knew that bacteria transferred it between cells. In 1928, 25 years before the structure of DNA was solved, British bacteriologist ...

Within the human digestive tract are trillions ... to better understand the bacteria-virus interactions inside our body," Zhang says. "We wanted to identify the key parameters that impact the ...

Microbiology is a biological science focused on the study of microorganisms. These are organisms that cannot be seen by the naked eye, such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, and single-celled algae and ...

Antibiotics are a double-edged sword—they should be as toxic as possible to pathogenic bacteria while being harmless to the cells of the human body. An international research team led by the ...

Experiments and modeling reveal the unexpected structure that can be seen in bacteria grown in mucus samples and biofilms.