Now That's Dedication

MIT's Eric Alm and his graduate student Lawrence David are delving into what The Scientist politely calls the "number two-ome" and their samples are coming from themselves. In addition to all their samples, they are also measuring about 100 other metrics such as their blood pressure, diet, and mood to see how gut microbial communities change over time and in response to daily life. Once Alm and David have six to 12 month's worth of samples, Arne Materna, a postdoc in the lab, will begin the sequencing phase to determine the 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequence of the bacteria of the "number two-ome."