Caterina Carco

Riddet Institute, Massey University

Everybody in this audience is confident with the several implications that the microbiota has for our general well-being. However, what really amazes me about microbes is that the human body has 10 times more bacteria than cells, which makes us “more bacteria than human”. Or the fact that 80-90% of all the vagal fibers carry information from the gut to the brain, rather than the other way around, suggesting that we should really trust our gut feeling!

In ancient times, Hippocrates, father of modern medicine, stated that “all disease begins in the gut”. More recently, scientific evidence confirmed that dysfunctions in the gut microbiota are linked to several inflammatory conditions in the gut and throughout the body. My research aims to unravel the host-microbiota interactions responsible for functional disorders of the gut, to ultimately develop clinically validated nutritional approaches promoting gut health and wellness.