Movies & lectures
In a series of movies called "Gut Life", we explain how the gut bacteria get in to the human body, how they live in symbiosis and cooperate with our body and how they affect us both in health and in disease.
Additional film material and recorded lectures are found at the end of this site.
Gut Life – Who’s there?
In the darkness of the intestine there is an entire ecosystem of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microorganisms. We know most about the bacteria in the gut. They make up just over a kilo of our body weight and if we zoom in, we see that our trillions of bacteria can be divided into hundreds of different species. Each art can in turn produce thousands of different substances and molecules. No wonder they can affect how we feel! In this movie you will learn more about different bacteria that live in our intestines and how they live and interact with our body and our organs.
Gut Life – From zero to a trillion
No bacteria live in the uterus during a normal pregnancy. But colonization begins as soon as the baby makes its way out into the world. Zero becomes trillions!
Gut Life – Bacteria as medicine
Are all bacteria good? Can you add bacteria that are particularly good for health? What should you eat to get the right kind of bacteria? In this movie, we explain how increased knowledge about the gut bacteria and their functions can contribute to preventing, and perhaps even curing, certain types of metabolic diseases in the future.
Gut Life - Microbiota vault
Around 2000 pre-purified intestinal bacterial species and 3000-4000 stool samples are stored in a -80C freezer in the basement of Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg. The bacteria and samples are used in research to determine what constitutes a healthy or a diseased gut life - and how to restore the balance of gut bacteria when there is a problem. But how is research into gut bacteria carried out and how can we know which bacteria are good and which are harmful?
Hope for a drug against type 2 diabetes
Fredrik Bäckhed, University of Gothenburg, is on his way to make a drug that can prevent and cure type 2 diabetes. By taking drug capsules with special gut bacteria, he believes a large proportion of those with type 2 diabetes can get better. Through his research he has found that patients with type 2 diabetes lack certain bacteria, so they break down certain nutrients differently and the substance imidazole propionate is formed. The substance impairs the cells' ability to respond to insulin, Experiments with mice have already succeeded next in line is man.
This is a movie by the Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
Lecture: The Gut Microbiota in Diabetes
During the webinar, Professor Bäckhed will discuss the influence of the gut microbiota in type 2 diabetes. The microbial ecosystem, microbiota, of the human gut consists of trillions of bacteria and recent data have demonstrated that an altered gut microbiota can be associated with a number of diseases, ranging from obesity and inflammatory diseases to behavioral abnormalities. Here, a study where the microbiota of individuals with prediabetes and screen-detected type 2 diabetes was assessed is presented. There is extensive microbiota-host cross talk that generates signals to extraintestinal organs and it is becoming more evident that a miss-configured microbiota may produce signals that contribute to metabolic diseases . Exploring how microbially produced metabolites contribute to disease may provide foundations for novel treatment strategies based on the microbiota.
This is a webinar by Mercodia.