Bacteria cells outnumber human cells in the average healthy human body by a factor of almost ten. Now researchers are asking if those resident microorganisms play a larger role in who we are than previously thought. ORNL researchers are joining an international collaboration to learn more about the role microorganisms play in, for example, the digestive system and how disruptions in the symbiotic balance in "gut microflora" might control the transition from healthy to disease conditions. ORNL's capabilities in mass spectroscopy offers researchers new and powerful tools for probing the extremely complex relationships between the microbiome and their human hosts.
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