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100 Trillion Bacteria Make Up Human Microbiome & Biologists Say It's A Good Thing

WHOA: 100 Trillion Germs Living In Your Body
Jacqueline Howard
By 

Senior Science Editor, The Huffington Post

Helicobacter pylori bacteria. Computer artwork of Helicobacter pylori bacteria in a human stomach. Formerly known as Campylobacter pyloridis, these are spiral-shaped Gram-negative bacteria. The terminal flagella (hair-like structures) are used for locomotion. Colonies of H. pylori are found in the mucus lining of the stomach. They cause gastritis, and are also the most common cause of stomach ulcers. H. pylori may also be a cause or co-factor for gastric cancer, as its presence increases the risk of developing stomach tumours.
Helicobacter pylori bacteria. Computer artwork of Helicobacter pylori bacteria in a human stomach. Formerly known as Campylobacter pyloridis, these are spiral-shaped Gram-negative bacteria. The terminal flagella (hair-like structures) are used for locomotion. Colonies of H. pylori are found in the mucus lining of the stomach. They cause gastritis, and are also the most common cause of stomach ulcers. H. pylori may also be a cause or co-factor for gastric cancer, as its presence increases the risk of developing stomach tumours.

I can tell you the exact date that I began to think of myself in the first-person plural — as a superorganism, that is, rather than a plain old individual human being. It happened on March 7. That’s when I opened my e-mail to find a huge, processor-choking file of charts and raw data from a laboratory located at the BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado, Boulder. As part of a new citizen-science initiative called the American Gut project, the lab sequenced my microbiome — that is, the genes not of “me,” exactly, but of the several hundred microbial species with whom I share this body.

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