08 Aug Intestinal Virus Populations Huge and Rapidly Changing

MedicalResearch.com Interview with Frederic D. Bushman, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Microbiology
Department of Microbiology
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
426A Johnson Pavilion 3610 Hamilton Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104

MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?

Dr. Bushman: Viral populations in the human gut are huge, and some of the viruses change rapidly over time.

MedicalResearch.com: Were any of the findings unexpected?

Dr. Bushman: The rate of change of the fastest evolving viruses was surprising to us.

MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Dr. Bushman: We humans live together with enormous populations of viruses–sometimes they help us, sometimes the hurt us, but often they have little effect on us at all.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Dr. Bushman: The human virome is an important component of health and disease, but still little studied as a whole.  Much more detailed understanding is likely to impact on understanding health and managing disease.

Citation:

Samuel Minot, Alexandra Bryson, Christel Chehoud, Gary D. Wu, James D. Lewis,
and Frederic D. Bushman

Rapid evolution of the human gut virome PNAS 2013 ; published ahead of print July 8, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1300833110

Last Updated on March 19, 2014 by Marie Benz MD FAAD