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Part 2 of Jamie Morton on Finding Associations Between the Microbiome and Autism

Season 1, Ep. 4

Part 2 of the conversation with Jamie Morton, scientist and founder of Gutsy Analytics, who talks about his June 2023 paper in Nature Neuroscience entitled, “Multi-level analysis of the gut-brain axis shows autism spectrum disorder-associated molecular and microbial profiles,” in which Jamie and 42 other authors re-analyzed prior datasets to discover new connections between the human gut microbiome and autism.


For a primer on the human microbiome, check out this 2020 review piece that appeared in Nature Medicine: “Current understanding of the human microbiome.


We discuss:


*Implications of this work for future studies on autism — how to get at causality [2:55]; 

*Importance of longitudinal studies [3:40];

*Clinical trials done via sampling kits [5:40];

*Has the human microbiome changed over the past decades? [7:10];

*Microbiome research going forward, beyond autism [9:00]; 

*Microbiome and differential responses to drugs [10:45];

*Historical context -- when did scientists start talking about the microbiome seriously? [11:30];

*Connection to Maryland high school science standard on the nature of science [13:00];

*Connection to Maryland high school science standard on feedback in biological systems [17:40];

*Jamie’s memory from high school science — preparing for a robotics competition [20:27];

*Jamie’s advice to high school students interested in science — importance of multidisciplinary work [23:01]

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