The intestinal microbiota, an entire world to map

It’s an organ of the human physique about which we have no idea a lot. Nevertheless, the intestinal microbiota is a veritable ecosystem made up of some 100,000 billion micro organism, viruses, parasites and fungi, nestled in our digestive tract and weighing between 1 and a couple of kg.

It’s to map this “terra incognita” that an enormous world database geared toward analyzing 1 million microbiota has been launched. In France, the French Intestine undertaking, led by the Nationwide Analysis Institute for Agriculture, Meals and the Surroundings (Inrae) with the hospitals of Paris (AP-HP) and Inserm, is in search of volunteers to to research their stools. “For the second, we now have samples collected solely from sick folks. Now we have lots to be taught by characterizing the microbiota of wholesome folks”defined Joël Doré, director of analysis specializing within the intestinal microbiota at Inrae on the launch of the undertaking on Thursday. The objective? To know…