Lectures are free and open to the public for in-person and virtual attendance.
“The Microbiome: From Guts to Lungs” - George O’Toole, Dartmouth
The human gut microbiome (the microbes in your intestine) are sometimes considered the largest organ in the human body. In fact, we are made of equal numbers of human cells and bacterial cells. There is a growing appreciation that the microbes in the gut can impact distant body sites, including the brain and the airway. By studying infants and children with cystic fibrosis (CF), we reveal that the best way to predict disease in the airway is the composition of the microbes in the gut. Jumping off from this observation, we show evidence for this gut-to-lung connection we call the “gut-lung axis.” I’ll discuss how we’ve moved from a clinical observation, to understanding some fundamental microbe-host connections, to taking the first steps toward a therapy to treat airway diseases like CF using a gut-focused probiotic.
George O’Toole joined the Geisel School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in 1999 and was promoted to Professor in 2010. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with Dr. Jorge Escalante-Semerena and performed postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School as a Damon-Runyon and Hood Fellow with Dr. Roberto Kolter. O’Toole’s honors include an NSF Career Award, Dupont Young Investigator Award, Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, election as a fellow of AAAS and the American Academy of Microbiology and serving as Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Bacteriology. O’Toole’s laboratory studies surface-associated microbial communities called biofilms, including how these communities form and how we can destroy them. They also study the microbial communities in the gut and the airway of people with cystic fibrosis, and how the gut and airway communicate to influence health.
No registration required for in-person attendance. Doors open at 7:30 PM, lectures start at 8:00 PM.
