Q&A: Preserving The Body's Bugs

The overuse of antibiotics could be threatening humans' microbiome—and Martin Blaser is on a mission to save it.

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Martin BlaserRENE PEREZ

In recent decades, the incidence of non-infectious diseases, such as asthma, allergies, diabetes, and others has risen dramatically—a change Martin Blaser of New York University School of Medicine suspects might be due to the increased use of antibiotics, which not only kill pathogenic bacteria, but our bodies' “friendly flora” as well. In a comment in this week's Nature, Blaser laid out his approach to understanding the impact of antibiotics on microbiota in humans. The Scientist spoke with Blaser about his travels to the depths of our guts and the Peruvian Amazon to find the answers.

The Scientist: What is the role of friendly flora in our bodies?

Martin Blaser: Animals have had colonizing bacteria ever since we were animals, let's say a billion years. There's ...

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Meet the Author

Kerry Grens
Kerry served as The Scientist’s news director until 2021. Before joining The Scientist in 2013, she was a stringer for Reuters Health, the senior health and science reporter at WHYY in Philadelphia, and the health and science reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio. Kerry got her start in journalism as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at KUNC in Colorado. She has a master’s in biological sciences from Stanford University and a biology degree from Loyola University Chicago.
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