To Fight Nasty Digestive Bugs, Scientists Set Out to Build a Better Gut – Using Stem Cells

April 15, 2015

(Medical Xpress) – If you got hit with any of the ‘intestinal bugs’ that went around this winter, you’ve felt the effects of infectious microbes on your digestive system. But scientists don’t fully understand what’s going on in gut infections like that – or in far more serious ones that can kill. Many mysteries remain in the complex interaction between our own cells, the helpful bacteria that live inside us, and tiny invaders. Now, a team of University of Michigan scientists will tackle that issue in a new way. Using human stem cells, they’ll grow tiny “guts in a dish” in the laboratory and study how disease-causing bacteria and viruses affect the microbial ecosystem in our guts.