Can you build a better microbiome? Join us at the Civic Playhouse for a public seminar presented by globally renowned microbiome researcher Professor Rob Knight to find out how your microbiome affects you – and what you can do to improve it.

The author of Follow Your Gut: The Enormous Impact of Tiny Microbesand co-author of Dirt is Good: The Advantage of Germs for your Child’s Developing Immune System, Professor Knight’s research has linked microbiomes to a range of health conditions including obesity and inflammatory bowel disease.

Professor Knight’s work has enhanced our understanding of microbes in environments ranging from the tundra to the oceans of the world – and his lab has produced many of the software tools used by researchers worldwide to advance microbiome science.

We know that many factors influence the gut microbiome: age, diet, smoking and alcohol intake, even where you live. However, we still don’t know which of these is most important or even the role each specific microbe plays.

Learn about “The American Gut Project: Harnessing Citizen-Science to Map the Microbiome and its links to disease” and how it’s shaping our knowledge of the microbiome. Led by Professor Knight, this project combines crowd-funding and citizen-science to educate the public about their gut health and inform medical research at the same time. The USA Concept was anyone who’s interested in learning more about their microbiome can participate by posting a poo sample off to the lab for analysis.

This USA project is mapping the microbiome and beyond through open-source, open-access science that will eventually compare microbes of people around the world.

This public seminar is an opportunity to hear from one of the world’s leading experts in the microbiome and find out how our modern lifestyle can influence on our gut health.