Description:

The Department of Pharmacology is pleased to welcome Dr. Peter Turnbaugh, Ph.D., Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California San Francisco. 

The following is an overview of this seminar, as described by Dr.Turnbaugh:

The human gut is home to trillions of microbes that can metabolize many components of our diet and the drugs we take, and are in turn shaped by their exposure to these compounds. We recently identified the gene responsible for the bacterial inactivation of digoxin, which are inhibited by arginine, absent in non-metabolizing E. lenta strains, and predictive of digoxin inactivation by the human gut microbiome. We also have preliminary evidence that therapeutic drugs and dietary compounds induce microbial cell damage, reshaping the gut microbiome. Ultimately, we aim to better predict and manipulate the metabolic activities of our resident gut microbes.