My paper is titled Oral Microbiome Isolation of Chryseobacterium indologenes by Brittany Wintter.
I have an interest in the oral microbiome so I decided to culture my own mouth and this paper describes the process and results of my isolation. My isolation most resembled Chryseobacterium indologenes which is an unusual bacterium to isolate from the oral microbiome which I offered an alternative explanation in my discussion.
— Article and link: Gut microbes can spur immune system to attack cancer by Catherine Paddock, Medical News Today, and Tuesday April2, 2019 and link.
— Summary: The article found that there is the a connection between a healthy gut microbiome and the ability for an individuals ability to fight tumor growth. The study conducted by Thomas Gajewski foudn that there were 11 strains of gut bacteria that can help the immune system slow melanoma growth. These bacteria assist pathways that help keep proteins table.
— Connections: This connects to how lecture series on the human microbiome and how important the gut is highly diverse and assists with keeping humans healthy.
— Critical analysis: I found this entire article very interesting, especially that they found specific bacteria that aid in slowing tumor growth. I’ll be interested to see how this study progresses and if they can add these specific bacteria to individuals going through cancer treatment to assist with the bodies ability to eliminate tumor growth. The mouse model study looks very promising for the transplant of the bacteria but the inflammation response seems like it might be a dangerous side effect in humans who are already going through cancer treatment.
— Question: I’m wondering if there will be a way to artificially stimulate the growth of the specific bacteria without transplanting them into a host.
My art project was inspired by our two lectures on Archaea. I originally wanted to do a three part series but got a bit invested in this larger canvas so I decided to spend all my time painting little bits about each of the major types of Archaea. I really enjoyed looking into the different types and found that there was not as much information about the ammonia cycling for Thaumarchaeota as I anticipated. I was inspired but the Crenarchaeota being present in Yellow Stone hyper-thermal areas and deep sea vents. I tried to separate the different types of Archaea with the background but keep them unified be making it into a gradient.
I originally wanted to add to add rid bits about Nanoarchaeota and Korarchaeota but the information that was available didn’t lead to much inspiration for painting so I just left them with the names only.
I underlined the major genus for each of the three main types so that they were easy to identify.
I hope you enjoy my painting about Archaea.
Victor Morax: Moraxella lacunata
Victor Morax was a Swiss ophthalmologist, born March 1866 in Morges, Switzerland, who discovered the bacillus family Moraxellaceae, genus Moraxella. Moraxella are gram-negative bacterium that are short rods, coccobacilli or diplococci, Moraxella are sometimes phenotypically confused with Neisseria. There are thirteen species of Moraxella that reside in mucosa in humans and animals and often cause infections when the opportunity arises. The bacterium was also discovered during the same time, 1897, by German ophthalmologist Theorod Axenfeld; thus leading to the joint name of Morax-Axenfeld diplobacilli.
Victor Morax studied in Germany and Paris becoming a Doctor of Medicine in 1894. He worked at the Pasteur Institute from 1891 to 1902 where, in 1896, he discovered Moraxella which is associated with conjunctivitis in humans. Between 1903 to 1929, Morax worked at the Hôpital Lariboisière then went back to become a permanent member at the Pasteur Institute in 1929. Morax published four articles, most notably Le Trachome and he was also an editor for the journal Annales d’oculistique.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moraxella
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/moraxella
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Morax
https://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/1617.html
https://www.revolvy.com/page/Victor-Morax
Article and Link: The article I found was published in the New York Times by Richard Klasco, M.D. on December 21, 2018 titled Does the Gut Microbiome Ever Fully Recover From Antibiotics. The article can be found here but just a warning; The New York Times only allows so many article views per day before you have to pay for them.
Summary: The overview of the article is that studies are reviewing how the gut microbiome recovers from a course of antibiotics and questioning if the microbiome ever fully recovers to the same flora as prior to antibiotic treatment. The article gives basic information of the function of the microbiome in regards to human health and how the usage of antibiotic treatment indiscriminately kills bacteria regardless of being natural flora are harmful; it also has links to five different studies involving the microbiome and human health. The linked studies reviewed infant antibiotic treatment and breastfeeding, intestinal metabolism, effects of antibiotics on the gut microbiome analyzed by sequencing, and the microbiome showing incomplete recovery from repeated antibiotic treatment. The information being presented is stating that there is an increased risk for chronic health diseases with the use of repeated antibiotic treatments because the natural flora of the gut might not fully recover.
Connections: I will edit this post to add a question once we have progressed in our course.
Critical analysis: I found the study that analyzed infant gut microbiome, breastfeeding, and antibiotic usage very interesting. I’m glad that this article posted the link to PubMed so I was able to read the abstract. From the basic information in the article (without reading all the linked studies) I learned that there has been links between a disrupted gut microbiome and heart disease, obesity, asthma, and inflammatory bowel syndrome; I was surprised about the asthma and heart disease. I found that the article made some very bold statements that I could not directly find in the abstracts of linked studies but would be interesting in doing a bit more research.
Question: Given that we know that antibiotics are necessary in some cases but bacteria are increasingly becoming antibiotic resistant, I wonder if it more stress on prevention of unnecessary antibiotic usage should be given to the public. If the gut microbiome has such a difficult time recovering fully from antibiotic treatment should more research be conducted to alternatives to restoring proper function.
Hello! My name is Brittany Wintter and I am a senior here at UAF in the Biological Sciences program. My goal is to attend Dental School then come back to Fairbanks to work in the public health sector.
I am a born and raised Fairbanksian but love traveling the world. A few of my life goals are to travel to all 50 states and as many countries across the world as possible with my son. The images included is from a cathedral in Austria that has over 100 faces and many full statues as well as a beautiful window, taken in 2017.
I am particularly interested in Porphyromonas gingivalis which is a keystone bacterium in the formation of periodontal disease and also contributes to immune diseases; it is also intriguing that if present it generally consists of 1% or less of the oral microbiome.
I look forward to our semester!
