68: Dr. Emma Allen-Vercoe On The Gut Microbiome: Probiotics, Antibiotics, Food Intolerances

TWO NOBODYS

Dr. Emma Allen-Vercoe is back for a second episode and we chat about the influence of probiotics and antibiotics on the gut microbiome. Could there be missing microbes contributing to food intolerances? And why researching the microbiomes of honey bees is helping our understanding of their survivability and social behaviors.

Dr. Emma Allen-Vercoe obtained her BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of London, and her PhD in Molecular Microbiology through an industrial partnership with Public Health England. Emma started her faculty career at the University of Calgary in 2005, with a Fellow-to-Faculty transition award through CAG/AstraZeneca and CIHR, to study the normal microbes of the human gut. In particular, she was among the few that focused on trying to culture these ‘unculturable’ microbes in order to better understand their biology. To do this, she developed a model gut system - the Robogut - to emulate the conditions of the human gut and allow communities of microbes to grow together, as they do naturally. Emma moved her lab to the University of Guelph in late 2007, and has been a recipient of several Canadian Foundation for Innovation Awards that have allowed her to develop her specialist anaerobic fermentation laboratory further. This has been boosted by the award of a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Human Gut Microbiome Function and Host Interactions. Emma's research focuses are very broad, although they are all united under the banner of microbial culture and the microbiome. She has current projects focused on the human gut microbiome, on colorectal cancer, diabetes, xenobiotic metabolism, and 'missing microbes'. More recently Emma has entered the fascinating realm of the insect gut microbiome - specifically the microbes that colonize bees!