On August 2 2006, microbiologist Abigail Salyers led a discussion on the newly emerging view of the multifaceted relationship between humans and the microbial world. Although microbes are viewed by most people as “germs”, they are now known to be essential for life on Earth and because of this have been the target of NASA’s quest for life on other planets. On the negative side, their ability to cause disease and to become resistant to the antibiotics that have so far kept them in check is causing increasing concern in the medical community. Microbes have even shown up in court in connection with hospital acquired infections and bioterrorism, spawning a new field of microbial forensics. As Salyers has been known to say: “It is time for everyone to learn to think small!”
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Author of over 150 scientific papers, 2 best-selling textbooks and a popular science book called Revenge of the Microbes, Professor Salyers holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a PhD in physics which she taught at the university level for 10 years before making the transition to microbiology. She was president of the American Society for Microbiology in 2001-2002 (during the anthrax-letters crisis), has testified before Congress on genetically-modified plants, and provided expert testimony on antibiotic use in agriculture for various European and US regulatory agencies. Her research is focused on the bacteria found in the human intestinal tract and in particular how these bacterial colonies develop resistance to antibiotics.
Less than a month later, I’ve already seen two items in the news related to topics that came up during Dr Salyer’s discussion:
FDA approves use of bacteriophages for treating meat products (http://www.physorg.com/news75124306.html)
Chewing gum with lactobacilli (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5259314.stm)