WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: How The Human Microbiome Project Works 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.600 M Hey everybody, it's me Josh And for this week's 0:00:03.760 --> 0:00:06.760 S Y s K Selects, I've chosen How the Human 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:10.480 Microbiome Project Works, which we released back in May of 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:14.040 two thousand fourteen. And even after all these years, six 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:17.919 years on, this information is still just totally mind blowing 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:19.919 to me, and I love it. It's one of my 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:22.560 favorite episodes of all time. I've kind of forgotten about 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:24.960 it and discovered it again, so I hope you enjoy 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:31.960 it as much as I did. Welcome to Stuff. You 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:41.120 should know, a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:44.559 and welcome to the podcast. And Josh Clark, I almost 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:48.519 just forgot what I was gonna say your name. Yeah. Uh, 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:52.440 there's Charles W Chuck Bryant piping in ye and there's 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:59.640 the trio the Trifecta and it's terrible. Ikealy Uh do 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:02.200 you think, well, we are getting a little heat off 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:04.000 of it right now. It's just nice. Did you ever 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:06.160 see that IKEA commercial about the lamp that was thrown 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:08.840 out on the street. No, it was really good. Well 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:10.680 what happened to it? Was it like the monkey at 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.080 the I Kea? No, it was like a lamp gets 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:16.280 thrown out with like someone's just redoing parts of their 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:19.800 apartment and the lamp is uh kick to the curve, 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:24.640 computer animated, So it's it's a human formed not human formed. 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:28.560 What am I saying? Anthropogin anthropomorphized and like looks up 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:30.160 at the apartment that he was just thrown out of 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:32.720 it and stuff like that. Does he go back to Sweden? 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:36.600 I don't. I don't remember how it ends. Just remember 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:38.800 the lamp like turns at human. It was sad. It 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:41.880 was like sad. I got teared up. Did you go 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:47.160 buy one of those lamps? No, of course it didn't work. Um, so, 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:49.040 I guess you're feeling pretty good since you're talking about 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:51.800 lamps and everything. You know me and lamps I do. 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:54.600 That means it's a good day. A clear signal checks 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:57.720 in a good mood everybody. Uh, you know. One of 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:01.280 the reasons why you're in a good mood because your 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:07.960 guts are functioning properly. Yeah, yeah, ish, yeah, you know me, 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:11.920 it's day to day yeah with my stomach. Well that's 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:16.480 exactly right. Things change very quickly because of your stomach, 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:18.280 and your stomach can't affect your mood. As a matter 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:20.960 of fact, the vast majority of the serotonin, which is 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:26.000 a mood stabilizing neurotransmitter, is produced in your gut. Yeah. 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:28.800 And the way that things like serotonin and other stuff 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:35.000 uh is produced is thanks to our microbiome. Dude, Yeah, 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:39.040 our microbiome. This is the most fascinating thing going on 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:42.560 in medicine science right now. Yeah. I get the impression 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:46.000 reading various articles. When scientists talk about it, they all 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:49.480 seem really pumped up. It's like the breakthrough of the 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:53.600 century and this thing like just started. It's two and 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:57.160 like this could remain the breakthrough of the century. Yeah. 0:02:57.240 --> 0:02:59.760 And I mean, if you think about the timeline up 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:02.600 in till the twentieth century, you were like a plant 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.880 or an animal, right, And then it was literally like 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:09.400 the nineteen fifties and sixties that they started saying maybe 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:12.240 we should break things down a little further, and they 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:14.720 came up with the five kingdoms, and I think they 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.760 are now even as a six kingdom. Well, there's three domains, 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:22.920 now eight kingdoms. There's eight, there's eight and three two 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.680 of the domains are account for two of the kingdoms 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:29.480 as well. Bacteria and archia and archia used to be 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:33.399 thought that they were the same as bacteria. Yes, then 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:35.560 they started looking into them a little more and they're like, oh, 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.119 these guys are made up of different amino acids and 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:42.040 they have different characteristics. And our chia, for example, are 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:45.240 the kind of um microbial life that you'll only find 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:51.720 around undersea, hot water, sulfur events. Yeah, like volcano crazy places. 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:56.800 Not not in your vagina or in your mouth. Well, no, 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.920 because they're extreme ophiles. And a vagina or a mouth 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.280 isn't that extreme? Well it is because our kia lives there, 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:05.720 that's right. So the fact that we figured out that 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:09.240 our kia are different than bacteria, and not only that 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.640 they don't just live in extreme environments, but also on 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:17.479 the human body, that was something we can thank the 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:21.160 Human Microbiome Project for. Yeah, and that wasn't I think 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.000 they didn't even discover our key until the nineteen seventies. 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:28.080 So this all this stuff is brand new, right and exciting. 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.080 And by the way, the three domains are bacteria, archia, 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:35.080 and eukaryotes. Are us, yes, or eukaryotes because we have 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:41.080 nucleus as nuclei. Yeah, let's talk about this man we 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.680 we have before. I'm sure you remember in the fecal 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:47.599 transplant episode, yes, because it definitely factors into it. You 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:52.480 can um hoop shakes. Yeah, you can cure Claustradium difficile, 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:56.360 which is something where that it's a gut microbe. It's 0:04:56.560 --> 0:05:01.400 very harmful to humans that can colonize your guts after 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:05.239 you take antibiotics, which is basically just like a slash 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:10.800 and burn approach, which, again thanks to the Human Microbiome Project, UM, 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.839 we're starting to understand we might want to use antibiotics 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:17.839 because what we used to just think of is almost 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:22.039 entirely bad are actually mostly beneficial, and even some of 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:27.000 the bad bacteria a. Ka. Germs um are actually present 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:30.520 in our microbiome and normally live in harmony. It just 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.640 appears that when the microbiome gets out of whack, that's 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:36.359 when disease happens. Yeah, Like you may have E. Coli 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:38.920 in your body right now? Yeah, I probably do, but 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:42.480 it's not a big deal. If you're always talking about 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:48.239 stasis home, keeping things balanced in life is the key, yes, 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:51.960 and uh, it's definitely the key with your own personal microbiome, 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:56.920 which we have learned is very individualized, which we'll get 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:00.200 to with the project. Right, So, if you take human 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:04.880 body and you scanned all the genes in it, Well 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:09.760 you would find is there are about a hundred times 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:16.040 more microbial genes than human genes in a genetic scan 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.640 of a human body. Yeah, are are Human cells only 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:21.839 make up about ten of the cells in the body. 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:27.880 And here's another great stat We actually the healthiest person 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:30.760 on the planet has between two and five pounds of 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:35.320 bacteria pounds. Yeah, of your body weight, about up to 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:40.719 five pounds. Yes, what's crazy is is that that's even 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:46.400 considering that microbial cells are anywhere from a tenth to 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:49.400 a hundredth the size of an average human cell. Yes, 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.559 you do. You know how many? How much five pounds 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:54.920 would have to add quite a few. As a matter 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:58.800 of fact, there's um an estimated hundred trillion microbes on 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:04.760 an average human in person, just in on and a 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:08.440 part of such a such a part of us and 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:12.160 our our normal functioning that we're finding very quickly that 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:16.800 they're they're pretty much interchangeable. There, they are one with 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:19.960 us and um as their host. We are kind of 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.240 one with them. Yeah, like you have fungus on your skin, Yeah, 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:25.560 no big deal. Right, Well, that's another thing too, we 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:28.800 should talk about when people say microbe. Um, it's kind 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:33.640 of a catch all word for yeah, any tiny, typically 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:37.360 unicellular life. And that's the case here too. But it 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:41.640 doesn't just mean bacteria. The human microbiome is made up 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:44.360 of lots of bacteria and lots and lots of different 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:48.280 types of bacteria. Um. For example, the mouth may have 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:53.160 up to five thousand different species of bacteria. Yeah, and 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:56.280 they're not just lazing around in your body, like they 0:07:56.320 --> 0:08:01.600 are responsible for keeping your body in chat or you know, 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:04.360 sometimes responsible for it being out of whack. But they're 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:07.400 all they're all doing something or laying there waiting to 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:11.680 do something. You also have a what's called a virume. 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.920 You have viruses in your microbiome, and they appear to 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:21.680 be present to keep the bacteria populations from getting out 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.880 of control. Like they're there to infect bacteria, to kill 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:27.960 them off. And they it's kind of like, um, they're 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:33.199 the lions to the gazelles of the microbiome. You take 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.199 away the lions, you've got too many gazelles. Yeah, they 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:38.959 all start to starve, they don't function correctly. They may 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:40.839 even eat each other. You don't want to see a 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.120 gazelle eat another gazelle. So you have lions there, and 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:48.360 the lions these apex predators keep the gazelle population and 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:52.720 check and ultimately healthy. Paradoxically, the same thing with the 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.360 virume in your microbiome. Yeah, I mean they we know 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:58.920 they aid like gut bacteria aids digestion, and we'll get 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:01.760 the gut bacteria more. I mean, they're discovering just all 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:06.560 kinds of things that affects uh, synthesized vitamins. Um. When 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.640 you poop in the toilet and you look at your poop, 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:12.440 which you should do by the way, like you know 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:16.000 on a regular basis, Um, how much is it? Is 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:19.600 it half? From a third to half? So a third 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:23.400 to half of that is microbial biomass. It's not food, No, 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:27.240 it's like dead and living bacteria that you're pooping out 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:31.000 about half half. I saw something that was kind of 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:35.840 mind blowing to um. It's it's really neat and accurate, 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:40.040 especially on a microbial level. To imagine your alimentary system, 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:44.800 your digestive system as the inside of that is technically 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:48.960 outside of your body. You have a hole, a trail 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:55.040 running through the middle of your body that's technically the outside. 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.800 Uh yeah, I guess I see what you mean, it's 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:01.199 just chew on it from an Yeah, like the the 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.720 inside of your digestive system is technically the outside of 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:11.640 your body. That's outside of your body. Yeah, it's confusing, 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:14.480 it is, but once once your head wraps around it, 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:17.120 it's like one hand clapping kind of thing and you're 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:21.640 just like, whoa, that is neat. Uh all right, So 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:25.920 that's I guess the briefest of overviews of microbes in bacteria, 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:28.880 which we've talked about ad nauseum on the show in 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:32.320 our Great Digestion podcast that was one of my favorite ones. 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:36.079 And then we've already talked about the poop shakes. Uh. 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:39.960 So the National Institutes of Health came up with a plan, 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.719 got some money together and said, let's try and do 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:46.760 what the Human Genome Project did. Let's try and map 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:51.800 out the micro the human microbiome, which is a very 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:57.079 tough task because everyone is different. Yeah. Well, yeah, everyone's 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:00.680 microbiome is different. And I just saw today it was 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.680 released from the University of Michigan. They've kind of already 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:09.680 determined there is no such thing as a baseline healthy microbiome. Yeah, 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:11.760 and that was one of the goals of this project. 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:14.920 That was started in two thousand seven, was that UM 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:19.920 to fight to establish a baseline micro biome like they 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:22.520 didn't know what one looked like like. They knew that 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:26.080 people had tons of bacteria and protozoa and viruses all 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:29.120 over us and in us, But what is that's supposed 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:31.559 to look like? And when you figure out what it's 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.160 supposed to look like, then you can figure out what 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:38.160 what an unhealthy one looks like and then possibly how 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:42.600 to correct that by adjusting this this microbial ecosystem back 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:45.760 to a baseline. But I'm not surprised that they found 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:48.560 that there isn't a baseline that is two different And 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:50.800 that doesn't mean that they can't like learn a lot 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.160 and help us out a lot. What they're basically saying 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:56.800 is you take a dozen completely healthy people and their 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:00.160 microbiomes are going to be completely different still, and there 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:06.160 was UM. There is one huge revolution in UM in 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:11.600 the study of bacterial or microbial life that that made 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:15.720 this project possible, same with the human genome, but UM 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:19.960 much more for this it's called metagenomics. And prior to 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:24.280 the Evan and metagenomics, if you wanted to study bacteria, 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:30.280 you had to find a bacteria that could be replicated, cloned, cultured, Yeah, 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:35.120 in the laboratory setting, and UM disaccounted for just a 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:39.200 very very small fraction of the number of microbes out there. 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:42.880 What's more so, not only did you not have a 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:48.120 representative sample, but you also didn't have UM any kind 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:52.120 of anything less than an artificial setting. So even if 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:55.360 you did get these microbes, if you could replicate him 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:58.600 in the lab, UM, they weren't gonna behave the way 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:01.200 they would in their natural set, like on your body. 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:05.559 So what metagenomics did UM was you can now take 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.800 like a representative sample, say like a clump of soil 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:13.760 or a swab of somebody's earfold, and get all of 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:17.480 the microbe microbes in there, and then basically just do 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:21.200 this rough scan of them, separate all the DNA out 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:26.400 at these enzymes that go and clip coherent fragments of 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:28.400 this DNA out, and then you take it and you 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:31.440 put it into what's called a model organism, and that 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:35.440 model organism starts to replicate as cells, and then each 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:39.760 cell displays a certain characteristic associated with a different microbe. 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:42.240 So all of a sudden you can start studying the 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.520 different cells and say, oh, well, this has to do 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:49.760 with this microbe, and this means that this protozoa is present, 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:52.160 and so on and so forth, and now you can 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:57.120 get a truly representative sample of what's in a microbiome. 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.480 And without metagenomics like this, none of this would be possible. 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:03.400 But now we're starting to find all sorts of new 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:07.120 uh not just information, but even new species of bacteria 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:10.680 and protozoan. Fun guy, from the study of this stuff, 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:13.600 which is a great thing. It is a great thing, 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:15.680 and we'll explain why it's a great thing right after 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:35.480 this break. Okay, so we're back. We're back, and uh. 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:39.440 We were talking about the microbiome project, which is being 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.440 rolled out in phases, the first of which obviously is 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:45.880 to get as many of those samples via this new 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:51.520 technology and basically just get a big reference set, throw 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.480 them out on the table like a like a crawfish 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:58.160 boil too, in the hopes of establishing that baseline, well 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:02.560 not just a baseline, just basically cataloging everything with the 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:06.000 ultimate goal of seeing what this means to our body 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:08.600 and how these different things interact. So they put the 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.360 word out on the street and I H said, Hey, 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.320 we need some volunteers. Do you think you're a very 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:19.200 healthy person. It's so come volunteer. And six people who 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:22.640 consider themselves very healthy showed up and said, I'm a 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:25.640 healthy person, and they were just made to learn that 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:29.240 half of them weren't healthy. Yeah apparently, Um, like yeah, 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.920 over half were rejected out right. And that doesn't mean 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:36.040 they're like super unhealthy. It just means for the purposes 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:39.320 of this they needed the healthiest of the healthy people. 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:42.520 And I read that even even still of the ones 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:46.160 that were accepted, the two and forty two that made 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:52.359 the cut, Um, those people still had to have periodontal 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:58.160 disease and cavities treated first, and then basically they had 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:00.640 to be treated for that stuff and then they were 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:04.400 deemed fully healthy. But like, that's that's how the level 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:06.640 of health they needed for this study, or that they 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:08.760 wanted for it. Yeah, And it surprised me they only 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:11.960 got um subjects from two cities. I thought it would 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:15.560 have been like spread out, but um, Houston, Texas and St. Louis, 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:19.680 Missouri or where the final subjects came from, and they 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.920 haven't been And they were all white too. They were 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:26.120 white men and women aged eighteen two forty I believe, 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:29.520 And um, they were in the they were the picture 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:32.160 of perfect health. After the dentists got finished with them, 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:35.840 people are wondering. I don't know, but um, it's not 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:39.200 that this has been that the Human Microbiome Projects has 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:41.640 been criticized for it. It's more just been like you, 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:46.720 so you guys got a swab of just these just 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.920 a small fragment of humanity. Yeah, maybe there's so much 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:53.480 starting point right, Well, yes, because they can't include like 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:57.200 every ethnic group in race when you're just starting out right, Okay, 0:16:57.360 --> 0:16:59.520 But I mean it is surprising that we just went 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.000 with called Asian only. Uh. So they finally get these 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:07.440 healthy people, Um, a couple of hundred scientists, eighty different institutions. 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:09.840 It's a big group thing. It's not just like one 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:13.639 university that's running the show. Uh. Budget of about a 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:16.280 hundred and seventy million bucks to start out with, and 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:21.640 a bunch of uh cotton swabs, Yeah, lots of them, 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:26.400 over eleven thousand cotton swabs, generic cotton swabs. Right. They 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:32.960 they they swabbed each man in fifteen locations, women in 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:35.720 eighteen locations. Three of the locations were in the vagina. 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.080 Men don't have vaginas, they don't but men have ears 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:44.840 and armpits and folds mouths. Uh. So there's up your 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.800 nose stool stool samples they're they're getting, as you know, 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:53.200 they're swabbing all the moist places, right uh and yeah, 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:56.239 that's exactly right, and not just moist places. But I 0:17:56.240 --> 0:18:00.240 think that's where you're gonna find the gold. Sure you know. Yeah, well, no, 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.800 it's true like your four arm actually uh is typically 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.520 pretty dry. Um, but it has one of the most 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:11.000 diverse array of bacterial species in your whole microbiome. Uh. 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:14.800 You have about an average of forty three. Yeah. And people, 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:16.680 when you hear this, don't think that didn't get the 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:20.680 reaction now is expecting? Well, that seemed low to me, Yeah, 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:25.679 because I'm used to hearing like thousands, thousands of bacteria, 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.720 not necessarily species. It's um, although I think the mouth 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:32.040 is going to top that. From what I remember, I 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:34.760 said like that it's like up to five thousand species. 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:37.199 I believe it. Yeah, um, But I think one of 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:39.040 our goals here, and the goal of scientists, is to 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:41.679 stop people from like changing the tide of how you 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.080 even think about the stuff. So when you hear that 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:46.200 all the bacteria in your mouth and under your armpit. 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:51.200 Don't think gross, think awesome. Well yeah, for the most part, Yeah, 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:55.600 you know so. Um, the project, I guess is still 0:18:55.720 --> 0:19:00.240 very much in its nascent stages, Chuck. Basically they project itself. Yeah, 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:02.800 they did the initial leg work, and then they did 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.199 the second phase, which is sequencing these things, which again, 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:10.919 like I just painted the broadest picture of metagenomic sequencing. 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:17.720 It is one of the most involved, insane complex processes 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:21.600 I've ever like tried to understand. It's more complex than 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:27.080 the breathalyzer. Remember that it used like kryptonite somehow. Yeah, 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:29.360 that was very surprising. Yeah, if you don't know we're 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:31.760 talking about, go listen to our Breathalyzers episode. It was 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:35.680 really those are complicated missions. I thought there were fairies 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:39.080 inside the little box that just pretty much smells like beer. Yeah, 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:43.840 metagenomics is it's better to just kind of understand it, 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:47.639 like little fairies performing magic than to really dive into it. 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:52.880 But um, the point is this project. They have all 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:55.560 this data. Now, now they have to sort through it. 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:57.960 They have what the problem of big data, whether it's 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:00.800 just an overwhelming amount of data, like truly some bytes 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.240 of data three point five trillion bytes of data, which 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.679 is about a thousand times more than the Human Genome project. 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:09.600 And at first you're like, oh, wait, that doesn't make sense. 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:12.119 We're talking about bacteria, and you go, oh, yeah, that's right. 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:16.399 We have about a hundred two times the genes in 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.360 our microbiome than we do in just the human genome. 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:22.120 So yeah, that's a lot of data. And now they're 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:24.640 starting to figure out how to how to sort through it. 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:27.359 All right, So I guess after this break we can 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:47.200 talk about some of the things we have learned thus far. Okay, 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:49.080 we're back, all right, So now I guess we can 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:52.000 talk about some of these great findings, some of the 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:56.399 newest findings in the last what ars it? Well, they 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:59.359 started two seven seven years old, and it seems like 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:02.920 the first crop of like amazing stuff started in about 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:06.159 two twelve. Yeah, so after they had categorized things and 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:08.600 got like thrown all the crawfish out on the table 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:11.160 right in the corn. Yeah, the little corn is good. 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:15.040 Have you ever done that? I've had that before. Yeah, 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:17.919 it's good stuff. It's fun go to a big party. 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:23.600 There's a place in um on Buford Highway called um 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:26.120 the Crawfish Shack. I've heard of that, but I haven't been. 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:28.040 Did they do it like that? Did they just dump 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:30.119 it on the table and it's all picnic tables. No, 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:32.359 it's in the bowls and stuff like that. But um, 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:36.560 but it's all picnic tables inside and um, just huge 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:39.240 rolls of paper towels and it's dude, that place is 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:41.040 so good. Yeah, I guess you can't do that as 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:43.360 a restaurant. But if you go to a true crawfish 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:46.359 boil at someone's home, you have the picnic table covered 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:48.919 with the plastic thing and you just dump it on 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:51.440 the table and everyone just stands around like a bunch 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:55.960 of animals, right, getting drunk and eating, like sucking the 0:21:56.000 --> 0:21:58.320 heads of crawfish. But my my family used to do 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:00.800 something similar to that when I was a little in Toledo. 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:04.440 We would eat um my dad called it garbage pail stew. 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:07.520 Are you familiar? Is it like all the leftovers? No, 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:10.880 it's like you use a trash can to make it. Oh, 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:14.119 I've never heard of it over like a flame, and 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:17.080 obviously use a new trash can, like a brand new one. 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:19.800 So I guess when dad got a new trash can, 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:22.960 we would have garbage pails stew anyway, the metal trash can. 0:22:23.080 --> 0:22:26.120 It was, Yes, it was more like a the plastic 0:22:26.200 --> 0:22:31.640 just added just trying to like one of the old 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:33.600 timing ones. What kind of flame you got in your house? 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:35.920 And I don't remember what he cooked it on. Interesting, 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:38.560 I don't like in my in my mind's eye, I 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:41.520 can't look down. I can just see you just see 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:43.560 the kind of the top of it. But anyway, it 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:46.720 was like a Yankee northern Midwestern version of it. So 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:49.480 there's like lots of cabbage in it and like kill 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:52.000 Bossa and stuff like that. But it was essentially the 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:55.679 same thing and you would eat it on like like newspaper. 0:22:55.960 --> 0:22:57.760 I can't wait to get emails from people who were like, 0:22:57.800 --> 0:23:00.000 we did that same thing. I've looked around, I'm never 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:02.919 seen it since. I'm sure that, yeah, that sounds like 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:05.600 a thing that although your dad is very unique person, 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:08.760 insane is the way to put it, all right, So 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:13.439 back to the project and the findings. Um. One of 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:18.520 the things they've learned is that periodontist this is gum disease. 0:23:19.240 --> 0:23:23.840 Some bacteria are elevated if you have periodontists. So that's 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:26.200 gonna give you a little insight to maybe how you 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:28.560 can better take care of your mouth. What kind of 0:23:28.560 --> 0:23:31.760 bacteria you need in there? What kind of you don't? Yeah, exactly, 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:35.480 And like for example, strip to Caucus mutans is responsible 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:39.959 for cavities, um, so you wanna take care of your 0:23:39.960 --> 0:23:43.679 strep to Caucus muticans mutans. The thing is, Chuck, that 0:23:43.840 --> 0:23:46.040 reading this made me wonder like, are we gonna go 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:49.520 the other direction now? Where it's like, we understand that 0:23:49.560 --> 0:23:52.240 you can't just use antibiotics to get rid of everything, 0:23:52.760 --> 0:23:57.119 But if we identify bacteria that's like, oh, well that 0:23:57.160 --> 0:23:58.919 one gives you cavities, Let's get rid of all of 0:23:58.960 --> 0:24:01.440 that and find some sort of medicine that just gets 0:24:01.480 --> 0:24:04.439 rid of that. It could make things even worse than 0:24:04.480 --> 0:24:07.720 a whole other direction. Like one thing that I I 0:24:07.840 --> 0:24:11.440 figured out from this is that the the microbiome appears 0:24:11.480 --> 0:24:14.919 to exist in balance, like stuff that should make us 0:24:14.920 --> 0:24:19.000 sick E. Coli um, kinds of strepped staff, that kind 0:24:19.000 --> 0:24:22.520 of thing, like it exists on a healthy person's microbiome 0:24:23.160 --> 0:24:25.760 and it's just hanging out there. So it doesn't mean 0:24:25.800 --> 0:24:30.320 that they're inherently disease causing for us, or that they're 0:24:30.400 --> 0:24:34.720