A team of Luxembourg-based researchers, working at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (Eco-Systems Biology lab), has developed a research method that will allow scientists to study microbes in more depth than ever before.
Speaking of the research the lead scientist, Dr. Paul Wilmes, said: "In order for us to understand the impact that microbes might have on human health, we need to be able to measure the biomolecular information contained within the DNA, RNA (ribonucleic acid), proteins, and small molecules of microbes in a truly systematic way. This was not possible until now."
Using the method described, researchers can measure and integrate all the important biomolecular information from a single sample, providing scientists with high-resolution molecular snapshots of microbial communities in, for example, the human stomach and intestine.
The research paper reference is:
Hugo Roume, Emilie EL Muller, Thekla Cordes, Jenny Renaut, Karsten Hiller, Paul Wilmes. A biomolecular isolation framework for eco-systems biology. The ISME Journal, 2012