MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Pushpa Pandiyan, PhD Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences School of Dental Medicine Case Western Reserve University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The objective was to find the role of the resident bacteria in the mouth in controlling oral immunity. We examined this in a oral fungal infection model. How resident microbiome in the mouth maintains a healthy oral immune system was unknown before. We found that antibiotics led to destruction of microbiome and some of the good fatty acids the bacteria produced. This created an immune imbalance in the local tissue, thus making the host more susceptible to the fungal infection.  (more…)