“The big YOU – defining “you” on a microbial level”: TEDx talk by Alumna Hans Fischer Fellow Prof. Yana Bromberg
Every one of us is an individual – a unique and discrete entity, mostly separate and independent of its environment. Most of us can’t simply decide to trade heads or unhook an arm and exchange it for that tree branch right there. Turns out, however, that the microbial communities inhabiting our bodies define us as much or more than our body parts (and definitely more than our hair!). Yet, we are constantly exchanging our microbes with the environment and other people. In this talk we’ll explore the trade-off between the different definitions of “you” as an entity to identify the roles of our microbiome communities on individual vs. whole world scales. In other words, we’ll ask – what does it mean to be an individual?
Listen to Alumna Hans Fischer Fellow Prof. Yana Bromberg (Rutgers University) describe her research on deciphering the DNA “blueprints of life’s molecular machinery: The big YOU – defining “you on a microbial level (link via YouTube).
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