Step 1:
This class has taught me a lot about the impact microbes have on our health. Before this class, I knew that they were important and had some effects, but I did not realize the extent to which they control human health and the development of diseases. Thinking about it now, it makes sense that microbes that live in our gut can trigger inflammatory responses or immune responses just as other chemicals or compounds do in other places in our body. I think what has been most interesting to me is the use of microbes for treating diseases. I think it is a very smart but potentially risky route to take because we are dealing with live organisms which can evolve or develop traits or behaviors that we can’t always control once they have entered our body. It is amazing to me that we have been able to identify ways in which microbial communities can interact with our gut and we have specified which species promote human health and which trigger dangerous effects. However, in cases such as antibiotic resistant bacteria, we must be careful to not introduce threats to our body that would make it harder to heal or alleviate symptoms. I think I would want to learn more about the use of probiotics and antibiotics in alleviating diseases and the mechanisms behind it.
Step 2:
“I think it is a very smart but potentially risky route to take because we are dealing with live organisms which can evolve or develop traits or behaviors that we can’t always control once they have entered our body.”
Step 3:
Something I have wondered throughout the past modules in which we have learned about using probiotics is how physicians are able to control the effects of the probiotics. Unlike standard drugs which have a formulated chemical structure and dosage, probiotics are live bacteria which may have slightly different genomes and phenotypes, so the exact effect can not be guaranteed in the case that the species evolves and differentiates away from the intended use. Also, because probiotics are living, how is the dosage controlled? Bacteria typically have fairly fast life cycles and so the dosages can potentially vary – or do later probiotic pills begin with a smaller number of individuals so that by the time the patient takes the probiotic it is at the intended dosage? Additionally, each person has a unique microbiome, so are probiotics personalized to the patient or are they standard prescriptions? Probiotics seem to have a lot of uncontrollable features and so I would want to learn more about these factors and how they are controlled. I would also want to understand more of the interactions and mechanisms so that I can understand which factors are necessary to control and which are less significant.
Step 4:
For our final paper, I think I definitely want to look into either the use of probiotics for disease/infection treatment or prevention. I am extremely interested in disease pathways and how they can be affected and so learning about the ways in which physicians interact with these pathways in patients is something I am very curious about. Because our final paper is supposed to be about a controversial topic, I think I will begin doing some research about probiotics and what controversies surround it. Then for my paper I will explore the two sides and weigh the pros and cons of both. This will be a very good learning experience for me because I am neither for nor against probiotics at the moment so I will be able to develop my opinion on them through this paper.
