We have a symbiotic relationship with the trillions of bacteria that live in our bodies — they help us, we help them. It turns out that they even speak the same language. And new research from The Rockefeller University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai suggests these newly discovered commonalities may open the door to “engineered” gut flora who can have therapeutically beneficial effects on disease.
“We call it mimicry,” says Sean Brady, director of Rockefeller University’s Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules, where the research was conducted. The breakthrough is described in a paper published this week in the journal Nature.
