Health and Our Microbiome

Humans are just a speck in a massively bacterial world. 

Living in and on us, microbes make up 70 to 90 percent of all cells in our bodies—our microbiome—and our health depends upon them. What makes some of these bacteria benign and others cause disease, like antibiotic-resistant superbugs? What are the health effects of antibiotic overuse, and how can we restore depleted microbiomes? What can we learn from sequencing the DNA of these extraordinarily diverse ecosystems, and from the microorganism communities around us—our macrobiomes? The answers have fascinating and critically important implications for how we track pathogens, prevent disease, and stay healthy.

Video SciCafe: The Power of Poop Are fecal transplants the future of treating certain life-threatening diseases? Article Microbiome Monday: The Ecology of a Killer Microbe Microbiome Monday is back as our curators explore the ecology and life cycle of the killer microbe Legionella. September 14, 2015 Article Microbiome Monday: The Ecosystem In Your Belly Button Curators Rob DeSalle and Susan Perkins take us on a tour of the marvelous menagerie inside your belly button, which it turns out... September 25, 2015 Video Microbes of New York Meet some of the microbes that call the city home. Video SciCafe: Microbes in the House Recent discoveries from the invisible world of the microbiome. Article Meet Your Microbiome Explore how changes in the human microbiome may be contributing to an increase in obesity and other chronic conditions. Special Exhibition The Secret World Inside You Explore the human microbiome and find out how rapidly evolving science is reshaping our ideas about human health. November 7, 2015 — August 14, 2016 Article Microbiome Monday: The Microbiome of the World An initial sampling period conducted at the Museum this summer has provided the Healthy Human Microbiome Project with microbiome... July 18, 2016 Blog Post Microbiome Monday: The Top Three Questions from Visitors A presenter from the exhibition The Secret World Inside You shares—and answers—the most common questions. March 7, 2016 Video When Good Bacteria Go Bad Sharing space with bacteria leaves plenty of room for change. Blog Post Q&A: Mapping the Urban Microbiome What does the genetic fingerprint of New York City look like? Microbiome researcher Chris Mason, who recently gave a talk at SciCafe,... March 5, 2015 Article Welcome to Microbiome Mondays! NYU’s Dr. Martin Blaser kicks off our new weekly series in the run-up to the special exhibition The Secret World Inside You. August 24, 2015 Game Bacteria in the Cafeteria Game Some microbes make us sick. Most are helpful. Play this game to find out more about them. Article The Poop Cure Using Fecal Microbiota Transplantation to fight disease in the gut. Teaching Case Bacteria Evolving: Tracing the Origins of a MRSA Epidemic These teaching case materials show practicing physicians and infectious disease specialists studying the origins and impacts of pathogens. Article Microbiome Monday: How Do We Build Our Microbiomes? Dr. Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello discusses how modern Western lifestyles affect the development of our microbiomes. August 31, 2015 Video Ask a Scientist About Microbes In these videos, microbiologist Susan Perkins answers kids’ questions about microbes. Blog Post The Microbiome of Home Just like you, your house or apartment has its own microbiome—a unique, invisible population of bacteria, fungi, and viruses living... June 15, 2016 Game How Lou Got the Flu How can the influenza virus travel around the world? Find out in this quizzy story!

This project is supported by the Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).