DNA, RNA, WTF Part III - Your Microbes & You: A Love Story
Taught by Jessica S.
Despite her NYC pedigree, Jessica has always been obsessed with the natural world, above and beyond pigeons, rats, and cockroaches. By day, Jessica studies membrane biogenesis and signaling in M. tuberculosis, the nasty bacterium that causes TB. She holds an MPH from Columbia and a PhD from Cornell. Her grandmother would like you to know that this kind of doctorate means that Jessica does not come equipped with a prescription pad (and therefore “is not the real kind of doctor.").
Fact: Bacterial cells in and on your body outnumber your cells by a factor of TEN. So, by some measures, you are more bacterial than human.
Though your Russian Grandma has been touting the benefits of probiotic food products since 1900, science has only recently shed light on the cool ways in which these bacterial critters are helping you develop into the beautiful human you have turned out to be, complete with functioning immune, nervous, and digestive systems.
This class will discuss the Human Microbiome, with particular emphasis on the digestive tract, as supported by scientific evidence. We will also dispel pseudoscientific claims (ahem, Activia(R)!).
If you are interested in bacteria, the bacteria living all over you AT THIS VERY MOMENT, or you want to have intellectual discussions about poop, this class is for you.
