Apr 10, 2020
Shiraz Shah, a Senior Researcher
at COPSAC, or Copenhagen's Prospective Studies on Asthma in
Childhood, uses microbiology to track and analyze the
viruses and corresponding health conditions in the two cohorts
that the center follows.
This podcast explores
COPSAC currently is following two cohorts (or groups) of children with asthma, one born in 2000 and one born in 2010. The research center is trying to figure out why asthma occurs. Asthma is the most prevalent disease in children as well is the most common reason children see doctors and are being medicated. COPSAC is using microbiology and data analysis to understand why.
Dr. Shah explains that the
center is measuring everything that they can about these children,
from when they started daycare to the food they eat to their
respective genomes. The prevailing theory centers around the immune
system attacking its own body and corresponding inflammation.
Examples of single-study findings include one where mothers who
take extra fish oil while pregnant have kids who were a third-less
likely to develop asthma. He describes other similar findings but
ultimately there's no overarching finding at this point.
Dr. Shah also describes what
microbiology can discover from collecting data on the viruses and
bacteria present in these children as they try and understand if,
in one example, asthma is really five different diseases with the
same physical effect. He explains how viruses dominant our earth
and each living organism.
As our understanding of bacteria has evolved over the past several
hundred years, he describes how our understanding of viruses is
also changing and explains how intimately involved they are with
human evolution.
For more, see http://copsac.com/ and search Shiraz Shah's name in pubmed for his past work on CRISPR.