Capturing the Interactive Dynamics of the Human Host/Microbiome System

John Lawrence Lecture – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Berkeley, CA – June 12, 2018

Abstract

I will report on results from a decade of quantification of my body (including its gut microbiome), using longitudinal measurements of the gut microbiome composition and of over a hundred blood and stool biomarkers. These are contextualized using human genome sequencing and MRI/CAT imaging. As a system scientist, my goal is to illuminate the interactive dynamics of the human host/microbiome system in health and disease, as well as to illustrate how medical interventions can drastically alter the internal dynamics of the host/microbiome system. These N=1 experiments are a rapidly growing addition to the traditional approach of averaging over large numbers of individuals and give us glimpses into the future of personalized precision medicine.