Using Supercomputers and Gene Sequencers to Discover Your Inner Microbiome
Larry Smarr - University of California, San Diego, USA
(Chair: Michael Norman)

Abstract : The human body is host to 100 trillion microorganisms, ten times the number of DNA-bearing cells in the human body, and these microbes contain 300 times the number of DNA genes that our human DNA does. The microbial component of our "superorganism" is comprised of hundreds of species with immense biodiversity. To put a more personal face on the "patient of the future," I have been collecting massive amounts of data from my own body over the last seven years, which reveals detailed examples of the episodic evolution of this coupled immune-microbial system. Collaborating with the UC San Diego Knight Lab, we have genetically sequenced a time series of my gut microbiome, as well as single moments from 50 patients with autoimmune disease. An elaborate software pipeline, running on high performance computers, reveals the details of the microbial ecology and its genetic components, in health as well as in disease. Not only can we compare a person with a disease to a healthy population, but we can also follow the dynamics of the diseased patient. We can look forward to revolutionary changes in medical practice over the next decade.