Microbes populate human bodies by the hundreds of trillions, from the moment of birth until long after death. Microbial cells in human bodies outnumber human cells at a staggering ten to one, yet little is known about how these commensal bacteria factor into human development, health, illness, nutrition, or gene expression. This project will critically assess scientific work being done on human gut microbes at the Center for Genome Sciences (CGS) at Washington University, where scientists have begun to consider microbes essential to being human, and microbial genomes as constitutive of the "second" human genome. This research has three aims: first, to evaluate strategies in systems biology and metagenomics as they develop in the lab, second, to follow the implementation of scientific knowledge in everyday life, and third, to explore the effects of this work on human and microbial lives. Research will consist of twelve months of fieldwork including: archival study, interviews, and participant observation, both in the CGS laboratory and the international field study sites connected with this scientific project.
This project brings anthropological questions about new kinships, genetics, sociality, and social practices to bear on questions unfolding at the edges of biological thinking about nutrition, food, and human health. Understanding commensalism, the biological sociality between humans and microbes, connects the concerns of anthropology, science and technology studies, and systems biology. It also enables collaborative research across the natural and social sciences. By investigating new conceptions of the human organism in the context of new social ecologies, this research will help social scientists, health organizations, and the broader public better understand the scientific and practical implications of metagenomics and human microbiota on public health issues.
Microbes populate human bodies by the hundreds of trillions and microbial cells in human bodies outnumber human cells at a staggering ten to one, yet little is known about how they affect human development, health, illness, nutrition, or gene expression. This project ethnographically investigated new trends in life science and biomedicine aimed at understanding commensal relationships between humans and gut microbes. The objective of this research is twofold: first, to understand how these co-evolving life forms are shaped by the synthesis of biological and social lives, and second, to examine how studies of human microbiota oscillate between the lab and the field. To this end, I conducted multi-sited fieldwork: first, at The Center for Genome Sciences at Washington University where diet experimentation, metagenomic analysis, and microbiome research takes place (the microbiome is defined as the comprehensive ecology of the human body, the entire population of microbial organisms, their genomes, and environmental interactions between microbe and human genes). Second, I did research in the urban slums in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where microbiome studies and maternal and child nutritional intervention occur. I am concerned with new modes of research in which accountability to ethical and effective scientific practices is shared between natural and social scientists. The human gut provides a space to innovatively apply ideas about science studies, kinship, and the anthropology of food to health, malnutrition, and biological research. Issues of global health and the dynamics of human relationships connect the concerns of biological and social scientists. The development of new methods for understanding the microbial world provides an opportunity to re-evaluate the way we view our human biological and cultural diversity. These connections can provide important insights into how specific social, dietary and political-economic factors shape human microbiomes. My aim was to develop research tools that can be incorporated into the design and interpretation of studies of human microbial ecology, and to examine the dynamics between the research laboratory, the field site, and the intervention context. Malnutrition and enteric infection is a cyclical disease burden among young children in the developing world, resulting in repeated persistent infections, and impairing the gut’s ability to absorb nutrients. However, the nutritive and energetic values of food are not fixed; they are deeply affected by ecology and kinship structures. This research study places the anthropologist in the scientific pipeline, providing information on traditions and changes in Bangladeshi food choices to scientists studying the relationship between human microbial ecology, diet and health. My research goals in Dhaka were: i) to improve our understanding of the social context of childhood malnutrition and enteric disease, and help to develop a more complete picture of this relationship by examining the function of food and diet in household decision making, ii) to incorporate knowledge about infant feeding, food preparation, maternal and child health, child supervision, household composition and health-seeking behavior into the context of scientific research, and iii) to explore and account for the food, household, childcare and kinship practices of daily life to inform and improve the effectiveness of global health projects. My findings demonstrate how an anthropological analysis could be integrated into the design and interpretation of large-scale health intervention studies, and provide important guidance for future studies in the areas of anthropology, global health, and the human microbiome. This project ethnographically investigated the impact of enrollment in microbiome studies on participants (how microbial terms and concepts are introduced, how these concepts are taken up in local, cultural, religious, and political contexts, and how they affect fundamental conceptions of the individual, family, and community), studied the impact of human microbiome studies on the investigators themselves, and attempts to understand the transformative dynamic evolving from cross-disciplinary work between biologists studying the microbiome and engaging with anthropology, and anthropologists engaging with human microbial ecology.
