AMA: Microbes, Health, and Society

Open to all registrants The microbes that inhabit humans -- collectively called the microbiome -- play a critical role in human development and physiology and can be considered an additional organ. They play major roles in food digestion, immune system development, and inflammation and directly affect the growing epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and asthma in industrialized societies over the past 50 years. Eran Elinav of the Weizmann Institute of Science will answer questions about how the microbiome effects humans (especially in regards to their diet) as well as how it can affect entire societies—shaping them through both common diseases and pandemics.