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Researcher receives international award for microbiome discoveries
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The BBVA Foundation has announced it has selected Jeffrey Gordon, MD, director of the Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, as a recipient of its Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Biology and Biomedicine category, according to a press release.
Gordon was selected as the awardee, according to the release, for his discovery on the importance of the gut microbiome and its effect on human health.
“Gordon and his team were the first to demonstrate the importance of the gut microbiome in regulating animal physiology,” the selection committee said in the release. “Following this fundamental discovery, it has been shown by many groups around the world that the gut microbiome plays a central role in health and in disease, including obesity, diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease, and perhaps will have great implications on the pathogenesis of neurological disorders and response to drug therapy.”
According to the release, Gordon aided in discoveries that identified that gut flora may contribute to the onset of obesity. Additionally, he helped identify that long-term effects of childhood malnutrition are determined not only by diet, but also by the assembly or otherwise of a healthy microbiome.
“People should step back and take a more expanded view of what we truly are; this splendid collection of microbial and human cellular and genetic parts,” Gordon said in the release. “There are over a hundred-fold more microbial genes than human genes in our bodies, and in this respect, we are more bacterial than human, but we benefit from one and other's company. The question is the degree to which our biological features are an expression of our microbial contributions.”
The BBVA Foundation, an international nonprofit, focuses on promoting scientific research and cultural creation, according to the release.
The Frontiers of Knowledge Awards, established in 2008, recognize and reward contributions of singular impact in science, art and the humanities, privileging achievements that have significantly impacted the world and have opened new avenues for further research.