The diverse realm of microorganisms that plays a vital role in our digestion, interacts with our brain chemistry, and even influences our immune systems, is generating a lot of scientific interest. The question is, what else does it do, and how? This episode explores the impact of the chemical signals sent out to our organs by our microbiome, in real time. We look at how they work on a ‘brain on a chip’. And did you know our immune system interacts with the microbes we host , which seems to have an impact on a patient’s response to chemotherapy. Microbiome research has largely focused on humans and mice – but what about fish? We see what is going on inside a salmon. Carmen Giordano, associate professor of Bioengineering at the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Milan, has developed a tool to help researchers see what the signals coming out of bacteria in the microbiome do to the brain and other organs, in real time! Nicola Gagliani heads a laboratory of the same name studying the mechanisms of T-cell biology at the University Medical Center, Hamburg-Eppendorf. He’s looking into how quickly our immune systems respond to our diets, via the microbiome. Molecular and evolutionary biologist Morten Limborg is associate professor at the Globe Institute in Copenhagen. Morten is researching how to make farming more sustainable by fine-tuning animal feed in response to their microbiomes. For more info on the projects featured, visit: https://europa.eu/!pd3rGP

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