Role of Ancient and Modern Human Microbiome on Health

by Julia Samuel on February 16, 2016 at 11:35 AM

By applying genomic and proteomic sequencing technologies to ancient human microbiomes, anthropologists are studying the ancient and modern human microbiome and the role it plays in human health and disease.

Christina Warinner, professor in the Department of Anthropology, OU College of Arts and Sciences, said, "We don't have a complete picture of the microbiome." "OU research indicates human behavior over the past 2000 years has impacted the gut microbiome. Microbial communities have become disturbed, but before we can improve our health, we have to understand our ancestral microbiome. We cannot make targeted or informed interventions until we know that. Ancient samples allow us to directly measure changes in the human microbiome at specific times and places in the past."

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Warinner and colleague, Cecil M. Lewis, Jr., co-direct OU's Laboratories of Molecular Anthropology and Microbiome Research and the research focused on reconstructing the ancestral human oral and gut microbiome, addressing questions concerning how the relationship between humans and microbes has changed through time and how our microbiomes influence health and disease in diverse populations, both today and in the past. Warinner and Lewis are leaders in the field of paleogenomics, and the OU laboratories house the largest ancient DNA laboratory in the United States.

Source: Eurekalert

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