Life partner
Without the bacteria that live in our intestines, a drug used against rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease wouldn’t work. The microbes produce an enzyme that cleaves and activates a key molecule in the drug. Scientists know the microbes responsible are there and that this activity is important, but they don’t know which microbes are responsible, or even how many kinds provide this service. Another type of intestinal bacteria can keep drugs from reaching target tissue, altering a Parkinson’s disease treatment in the same way the brain would, preventing absorption. Researchers believe that differences in patients’ microbial communities could account for the drug’s variable effectiveness. The culprit microbe, again, is unknown. The Harvard lab of Bauer Fellow Peter Turnbaugh is working to identify these mysterious microbes, and to better understand how the bacteria that live within us affect the drugs we take and the exotic foods we eat, collectively called xenobiotics. “There are very...