Microbiome

Genetically engineered microbes could create miniature drug factories inside the gut. Do the benefits outweigh the risks?

Autoimmune diseases are on the rise. The hunt is on to find their causes—including bacteria that may trigger the body to pick a fight with itself.

Can microbial communities help treat depression?

Bacteria in the body can soak up or block medications, offering a tantalizing explanation for why drugs sometimes don’t work.

More and more bacteria are nearly impervious to treatment. Could new approaches pick up where antibiotics leave off?

Fecal microbiota transplants run into a semantic crisis.

Bacteria in the body produce their own powerful antibiotics. Some may lead to new tools for fighting superbugs.

A community lab in New York City creates a portrait of Manhattan.

Does the body have a hidden highway between a mother’s digestive tract and the milk she produces?

Culturing bacteria in the soil from which they came could lead researchers to breakthrough antibiotics

Researchers are learning more about the unique biomes of medical spaces.

Internist and researcher Martin Blaser believes that disturbances in the gut may underlie several modern maladies.

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Selected Reads

For decades, a tiny encampment of researchers has held that statin treatment is a hoax. In a time when contrarian views roar to life on social media, how can medicine keep minority opinions from doing irreparable harm?

Two years in deep space will subject the body to unprecedented stresses. Scientists are probing the secrets to survival.

A freak explosion tore through the quiet Nova Scotian city, prompting one of the most dramatic medical responses in history.