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Integrative Medicine Research Lecture Series

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The NCCIH Integrative Medicine Research Lecture Series provides overviews of the current state of research and practice involving complementary health approaches and explores perspectives on the emerging discipline of integrative medicine.

“Microbes in Our Gut: Emerging Insights on Health and Disease” is the theme of a series of three lectures in Spring 2019.

The human microbiome is the community of microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi that naturally live in and on our bodies. These talks will focus on specific components of the gut microbiome, and natural products of interest produced by these organisms that might confer health benefits. Natural products and their potential effects on health promotion and various clinical conditions are a priority research area for NCCIH.

Videocast:  Watch these NCCIH lectures online! Go to “Today's Events” at https://videocast.nih.gov/.

See NIH Visitor's Information to attend in person.

Upcoming Lectures

Gut Microbes in a Disruptive Age

Dr. Dominguez-Bello
Speaker: Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, Ph.D.

Henry Rutgers Professor of Microbiome and Health
Departments of Biochemistry and Microbiology, and Anthropology
Interim Director, NJ Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Date: May 9, 2019 11:00 a.m. ET

Location: Lipsett Amphitheater, NIH Clinical Center, NIH campus, Bethesda, MD

Add to Calendar DD/MM/YYYY09/05/2019 11:00 AM 09/05/2019 12:00 PM Gut Microbes in a Disruptive Age Lipsett Amphitheater, NIH Clinical Center, NIH campus, Bethesda, MD

The microbiota, sometimes referred to as the microbiome, is a community of microorganisms (e.g., bacteria, viruses, and fungi) that is naturally present at various sites in the body. It is transmitted through generations. Mammals are born colonized with live microbes they acquire from their mothers during labor, and these microbes play a role in healthy development of the body’s organs and systems. In people, practices such as Cesarean section (or C-section, bypassing the birth canal), antibiotic use during pregnancy, and modern antimicrobial factors—some needed, others not—can reduce microbial transmission or perturb the microbiota. The consequences for health include an association with increased risk for immune and metabolic diseases. Dr. Dominguez-Bello will also discuss the impact of changes in lifestyle, such as increasing urbanization, on the microbiota; the need for research on microbes that become “lost”; and future restoration strategies.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Learn about the colonization of infants with live microbes acquired during their mother’s labor.
  2. Improve understanding of the effects of factors that impair neonatal colonization (such as C-section).
  3. Gain knowledge of the effects of modern antimicrobial practices on developmental phenotypes.
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Video: Watch this Live at NIH Videocast

The microbiota, sometimes referred to as the microbiome, is a community of microorganisms (e.g., bacteria, viruses, and fungi) that is naturally present at various sites in the body.

More Information

The microbiota, sometimes referred to as the microbiome, is a community of microorganisms (e.g., bacteria, viruses, and fungi) that is naturally present at various sites in the body. It is transmitted through generations. Mammals are born colonized with live microbes they acquire from their mothers during labor, and these microbes play a role in healthy development of the body’s organs and systems. In people, practices such as Cesarean section (or C-section, bypassing the birth canal), antibiotic use during pregnancy, and modern antimicrobial factors—some needed, others not—can reduce microbial transmission or perturb the microbiota. The consequences for health include an association with increased risk for immune and metabolic diseases. Dr. Dominguez-Bello will also discuss the impact of changes in lifestyle, such as increasing urbanization, on the microbiota; the need for research on microbes that become “lost”; and future restoration strategies.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Learn about the colonization of infants with live microbes acquired during their mother’s labor.
  2. Improve understanding of the effects of factors that impair neonatal colonization (such as C-section).
  3. Gain knowledge of the effects of modern antimicrobial practices on developmental phenotypes.

Speaker Bio

Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, Ph.D., is the Henry Rutgers Professor of Microbiome and Health in the Departments of Biochemistry and Microbiology, and Anthropology, at Rutgers University. She is also interim director of the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health. Dr. Dominguez-Bello is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Academy of Microbiology. She has received funding from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and the National Science Foundation. Dr. Dominguez-Bello received her Ph.D. in microbiology and her M.S. in animal nutrition from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Bacteria Get on Your Nerves: How Bugs Modulate Pain and Immunity

Speaker: Isaac Chiu, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Immunology
Department of Immunology
Harvard Medical School

Date: June 10, 2019 11:00 a.m. ET

Location: Lipsett Amphitheater, NIH Clinical Center, NIH campus, Bethesda, MD

Add to Calendar DD/MM/YYYY10/06/2019 11:00 AM 10/06/2019 12:00 PM Bacteria Get on Your Nerves: How Bugs Modulate Pain and Immunity Lipsett Amphitheater, NIH Clinical Center, NIH campus, Bethesda, MD

Dr. Chiu’s research focus is in uncovering interactions between the nervous system, the immune system, and microbes, in health and disease. Ultimately, his goal is to leverage knowledge to develop novel treatment approaches for chronic pain and inflammatory diseases. Among his discoveries, Dr. Chiu has found that bacteria directly interact with sensory neurons to modulate pain, and that neurons signal to the immune system to modulate bacterial survival and inflammation. Defining the ways that bacteria communicate with pain fibers, for example, could lead to new discoveries about the mechanisms at work in pain. Dr. Chiu will also discuss other aspects of bacterial interactions, e.g., how bacteria act on neurons to ensure their own survival, or how neurons regulate microbes to protect their human host from invading pathogens. 

Learning Objectives:

  1. Find out how pain is generated in the periphery.
  2. List some ways that neurons sense bacteria.
  3. Describe the consequences of pain activation by bacteria for host defense and immunity.
  4. Learn whether ways can be found to repurpose bacterial mechanisms of pain to treat chronic pain or infection. 
     
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Video: Watch this Live at NIH Videocast

Dr. Chiu’s research focus is in uncovering interactions between the nervous system, the immune system, and microbes, in health and disease.

More Information

Dr. Chiu’s research focus is in uncovering interactions between the nervous system, the immune system, and microbes, in health and disease. Ultimately, his goal is to leverage knowledge to develop novel treatment approaches for chronic pain and inflammatory diseases. Among his discoveries, Dr. Chiu has found that bacteria directly interact with sensory neurons to modulate pain, and that neurons signal to the immune system to modulate bacterial survival and inflammation. Defining the ways that bacteria communicate with pain fibers, for example, could lead to new discoveries about the mechanisms at work in pain. Dr. Chiu will also discuss other aspects of bacterial interactions, e.g., how bacteria act on neurons to ensure their own survival, or how neurons regulate microbes to protect their human host from invading pathogens. 

Learning Objectives:

  1. Find out how pain is generated in the periphery.
  2. List some ways that neurons sense bacteria.
  3. Describe the consequences of pain activation by bacteria for host defense and immunity.
  4. Learn whether ways can be found to repurpose bacterial mechanisms of pain to treat chronic pain or infection. 
     

Speaker Bio

Isaac Chiu is an assistant professor of immunology at Harvard Medical School. His National Institutes of Health (NIH) research support includes an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award in 2016, by the NIH Common Fund and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, and grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Chiu received his B.A. in biochemistry from Harvard College and his Ph.D. in immunology from Harvard Medical School. He completed postdoctoral work in Harvard’s Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and at Boston Children’s Hospital, respectively studying transcriptome analysis of neuroinflammation under Dr. Tom Maniatis and the neurobiology of pain under Dr. Clifford Woolf. Dr. Chiu’s other honors include a Ben Barres Early Career Acceleration Award from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and a Kaneb Award. 

Watch Your Step, There Is New Chemistry Everywhere

Speaker: Sean F. Brady, Ph.D.

Tri-Institutional Professor and Evnin Professor
Head, Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules
The Rockefeller University

Date: June 26, 2019 9:30 a.m. ET

Location:

Add to Calendar DD/MM/YYYY26/06/2019 09:30 AM 26/06/2019 10:30 AM Watch Your Step, There Is New Chemistry Everywhere

The characterization of biologically active small molecules (natural products) produced by easily cultured bacteria has been a rewarding avenue for identifying novel therapeutics, as well as gaining insights into how bacteria interact with the world around them. Large-scale sequencing of bacterial genomic and metagenomic DNA indicates that the traditional pure culture–based approach to studying bacterial natural products has provided access only to a small fraction of the diverse metabolites encoded by environmental microbiomes. In particular, these studies suggest that in most environments, uncultured bacteria outnumber their cultured counterparts by at least two orders of magnitude. 

Although there appears to be no easy way to culture this collection of unstudied microorganisms, Dr. Brady has developed culture-independent methods to circumvent this discovery bottleneck. These methods involve the extraction, cloning, and heterologous expression of bacterial biosynthetic gene clusters directly from environmental samples. The speaker will discuss applying these methods to the identification of new antibiotics from the global soil microbiome as well as metabolites encoded by the human microbiome.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Discuss the identification of new antibiotics from the global soil microbiome.
  2. Learn about identification of metabolites encoded by the human microbiome.
aguOAhjQLzBHdmKhDmXr23111

Video: Watch this Live at NIH Videocast

The characterization of biologically active small molecules (natural products) produced by easily cultured bacteria has been a rewarding avenue for identifying novel therapeutics, as well as gainin

More Information

The characterization of biologically active small molecules (natural products) produced by easily cultured bacteria has been a rewarding avenue for identifying novel therapeutics, as well as gaining insights into how bacteria interact with the world around them. Large-scale sequencing of bacterial genomic and metagenomic DNA indicates that the traditional pure culture–based approach to studying bacterial natural products has provided access only to a small fraction of the diverse metabolites encoded by environmental microbiomes. In particular, these studies suggest that in most environments, uncultured bacteria outnumber their cultured counterparts by at least two orders of magnitude. 

Although there appears to be no easy way to culture this collection of unstudied microorganisms, Dr. Brady has developed culture-independent methods to circumvent this discovery bottleneck. These methods involve the extraction, cloning, and heterologous expression of bacterial biosynthetic gene clusters directly from environmental samples. The speaker will discuss applying these methods to the identification of new antibiotics from the global soil microbiome as well as metabolites encoded by the human microbiome.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Discuss the identification of new antibiotics from the global soil microbiome.
  2. Learn about identification of metabolites encoded by the human microbiome.

Speaker Bio

Sean F. Brady, Ph.D., is Evnin and Tri-Institutional Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules at The Rockefeller University. Funders of his research include the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Brady received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, studying under Jon Clardy, and completed postdoctoral work at Cornell as well as a fellowship at Harvard Medical School. He is the founder of Lodo Therapeutics. His honors include being named a Beckman Young Investigator, an Irma T. Hirschl Scholar, a Searle Scholar, and a recipient of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation’s Innovator and Breakthrough Awards. 

Past Lectures

This page last modified April 18, 2019