Being Commensal: Human-Microbe Relations at the Edge of Biological Science

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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.