From immune function to brain activity, the bacterial balance in your gut affects a surprisingly amount of your total health. A diverse gut microbiome—the entirety of microorganisms in your gastrointestinal tract—is essential to maintaining that balance.

In your gut, a variety “good” bacteria keep “bad” bacteria in check by occupying space so the bad bacteria don't have room to grow. If the amount of good bacteria drops, bad bacteria like C. diff, salmonella, and E. coli can take over. An imbalance in gut microbiota increases your susceptibility to diseases such as diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), allergies, cardiovascular disease, and obesity.

Gender identity

While Lydia Freddolino’s outward gender expression has changed since the original filming of this content, the science remains the same.

 

Meet Lydia Freddolino

Lydia Freddolino, PhD, is Associate Professor of Biological Chemistry and Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics at Michigan Medicine.

 

Probiotics

Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that can help prevent infections and inflammatory diseases. They can be found in foods such as yogurt, but they can also be taken as supplements.

When bacteria that are good for our health are ingested into our bodies, they sometimes need help as they colonize our gut. Probiotics work by occupying space that otherwise harmful bacteria might occupy, helping the good bacteria form a large enough population to be sustainable. 

Dr. Freddolino and her collaborators study the ways probiotic bacteria interact with their hosts in order to develop more effective probiotic supplements to keep us healthy.

 

Organoids

Dr. Freddolino’s research requires collaboration with other labs. Dr. Vincent Young’s lab works with microbes and also makes organoids, lab grown tissues that mimic human intestinal cells. Creating cells and microbes is the first step in this research.

Dr. Young is Professor of Internal Medicine/Infectious Diseases Division and Microbiology & Immunology.

 

Measurements

Probiotics contain proteins vital to their reproduction and survival in a host. To better understand these proteins, Dr. Freddolino collaborates with a lab that uses a mass spectrometer to make measurements revealing the protein structures of probiotics.

 

Discovery journey

Dr. Freddolino’s journey of scientific discovery is just getting started! 

Eventually, you may be able to buy probiotic supplements at the store based on his research—but it could be five to ten years from now. 

 

 

 

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