Mouse house: Germ-free facility puts Nebraska U at forefront of microbiome research

January 4th, 2021

As appealing as the idea of a germ-free facility has become, Nebraska’s Amanda Ramer-Tait and her colleagues weren’t exactly anticipating a pandemic when they proposed it a few years ago.

The germs they focus on are bacterial, not viral, and more likely to help than harm. Besides, the facility isn’t designed to quarantine people — though the research conducted at the newly unveiled, nearly 10,000-square-foot Gnotobiotic Mouse Facility ultimately aims to benefit them.

The intestinal tract of an adult human can house about 100 trillion bacteria representing hundreds of species, making the gut an ultra-dense ecosystem — a microbiome — whose importance becomes more apparent with the accumulating evidence of each passing year. It’s become undeniable: The composition and condition of the microbiome influence a person’s gastrointestinal health, immune system and, in ways that remain murky, the functioning of systems ranging from the cardiovascular to the neurological. If the brain remains the most vital-but-mysterious chamber of secrets in the body, the gut has recently surged into second place.

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Story by Scott Schrage | University Communication