Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues (41 page)

resistant

terminology

transfer during childbirth

world of

see also
bacteria;
specific microbes

microbiome

disappearance hypothesis

human

milk

breast

Miller, Anne

Miller, C. Phillip

molds

Penicillium

mosquitoes

mouse studies

STAT experiments

mouth

MRSA

mucus

Mueller, Anne

narrow-spectrum antibiotics

Nash, John

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

natural selection

nervous system

Netherlands

New Guinea, tribes in

New World

New York University

NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey)

nitrogen

nitromidazoles

Nobel, Brandon

Nobel, Yael

Nobel Prize

Nomura, Abraham

normal flora

nose

nurses

nut allergies

Obama, Barack

obesity

antibiotics and

childhood

C-section and

STAT experiments

oceans

odors, microbial

oligosaccharides

oral contraceptives

ovarian cancer

Oxalobacter

oxytetracycline

oxytocin

pancreas, and diabetes

panspermia hypothesis

parasites

paratyphoid

Pasteur, Louis

PAT experiments

pathogens

antibiotic-resistant

antibiotic winter and

epidemic

H. pylori
discovered as

latency

population growth and

as predators

rise of

see also specific pathogens

pathology

Peek, Richard

Peggy Lillis Memorial Foundation

penicillin

allergy

childhood obesity and

discovery of

first use of

in pregnancy and birth

resistance to

Penicillium
molds

Peoria, Illinois

Pérez-Pérez, Guillermo

peristalsis

peritoneum

Perlino, Carl

phages

pharmaceutical companies

“broad-spectrum” approach

failure to develop new antibiotics

growth promotion and

H. pylori
and

profits

pine beetle

placebo effect

plague

Plasmodium falciparum

plastic

Plottel, Claudia

pneumococcus

pneumonia

polio

pollution

population growth

prebiotics

pregnancy

antibiotic used in

bacteria and

DES and thalidomide used in

diabetes and

probiotics

prokaryotes

prontosil, first sulfa drug

proteins

H. pylori

protists

public health

puerperal sepsis

Quammen, David

rabies

Reibman, Joan

reptiles

resistance, antibiotic

ancient nature of

antibiotic winter

C. diff
infections

failure to develop new antibiotics

growth promotion and

MRSA

Salmonella

respiratory infections

Revolutionary War

rheumatic fever

rickettsia

Rocky Mountain spotted fever

Rosebury, Theodore

rubella

rumen bacteria

Salmonella

Salmonella typhi

Salvarsan

sanitation

sanitizers

SARS

scarlet fever

Schwarz, Dragutin

Semmelweis, Ignatz

serotonin

sex

Sheskin, David

shingles

short-chain fatty acids (SCFA)

silver nitrate

sinus infections

skeletons

skin bacteria

childbirth and

Skirrow, Martin

smallpox

soil

solutions

diagnostics

fecal microbiota transfer

narrow-spectrum drugs

probiotics

reduced prescription of antibiotics

restoring missing microbes

Soper, George

spinal tap

Stanford, Leland, Jr.

Staph
infections

Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus epidermidis

STAT experiments

stomach

acid

cancer, and
H. pylori

H. pylori
in

inflammation

strep infections

strep throat

streptococci, including Group B

Streptococcus pneumoniae

streptomycin

sulfa drugs

sulfonamide

superbugs

surgical infections

survival of the fittest

symbiosis

synbiotics

syphilis

Taft, William Howard

T-cells

teeth

testosterone

tetracycline

thalidomide

throat infections

TransSTAT

Trasande, Leo

T-reg cells

triclosan

Trinidad, bubbling tar lake

tuberculosis

turista (Montezuma’s revenge)

tylosin

typhoid

Typhoid Mary (Mary Mallon)

typhus

ulcerative colitis

ulcers

H. pylori
and

University of Colorado Medical Center

urban growth

urea

urinary tract infections

VA (Veterans Affairs) hospital

VacA

vaccines

vagina

bacteria

birth

cancer

episiotomy

microbe transfer during childbirth

Vanderbilt University

varicella-zoster

Venezuela

vernix

vertical transmission

viridans streptococci

viruses

distinction between bacteria and

epidemics

hosts

latent

pathogens

see also specific viruses

vitamin B
12

vitamin D deficiency

vitamin K

vomiting

Warren, Robin

Washington, George

water

antibiotics in

contamination

West Virginia

wheat allergy

whooping cough

wolves

World Health Organization (WHO)

World War I

World War II

Yale

yaws

yeast infections

Yellowstone National Park

Yersinia

Yukon permafrost

Zaire

Z-pak

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writing, as with science, often takes a village, especially when the author, like me, has a different day job. I am much indebted to my daughter Simone Blaser for helping me shape my early ideas into a form that could be attractive to a publisher, and to Dorian Karchmar, my agent (and Simone’s boss at William Morris), who helped me get there. Sandra Blakeslee did yeoman work converting my ideas and prose, generated by an academic, into a manuscript that could be more widely understood. To Sandra, with her endless creativity, intellect, and energy, and who I now count as one of the most important teachers in my career, I will be forever grateful. Gillian Blake, editor in chief at Henry Holt, and an enthusiast about this work from the very start, contributed in too many ways to count, and I learned that with regard to both style and content she was always right.

Many of my colleagues read portions of the manuscript to help determine whether or not I was on track and accurate. I appreciate the efforts of Drs. William Ledger, Ernst Kuipers, Claudia Plottel, and José Clemente, and the important suggestions of Erika Goldman. Dr. Robert Anderson read the work as both physician and reader, and he gave great advice. I am indebted to Dr. Jan Vilcek for his critical insights as well; although English is not his native language, Jan also corrected my grammar. Linda Peters and Isabel Teitler helped me understand what could be understood and was interesting. I appreciate the friendship they each shared, helping me to craft this manuscript. My assistants at New York University, Sandra Fiorelli, Jessica Stangel, and then Joyce Ying, helped make order from chaos, no small feat, and I am most appreciative of their efforts. Adriana Pericchi Dominguez was an assiduous and resourceful fact-checker.

An important segment of the book focuses on the research done in my lab at Vanderbilt University and, over the past fourteen years, at NYU. At Vanderbilt, Drs. Tim Cover, Murali Tummuru, Guillermo Pérez-Pérez, Richard Peek, John Atherton, and Ernst Kuipers played key roles. At NYU, it also was very much a team effort, involving other faculty members, graduate and medical students, college and high school students, and visiting researchers. So many were involved in substantive ways that it would difficult to name them all. But for the work highlighted in the text, Drs. Guillermo Pérez-Pérez, Zhiheng Pei, Fritz Francois, Joan Reibman, Yu Chen, Zhan Gao, Ilseung Cho, Claudia Plottel, Alex Alekseyenko, Leo Trasande, and Jan Blustein—all fellow NYU faculty members—contributed in ways mentioned and not. I have had outstanding graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who worked with me on the experiments discussed, notably Laurie Cox, Shingo Yamanishi, Alexandra Livanos, Sabine Kienesberger, and Victoria Ruiz. Yael Noble worked as a research assistant before her time in medical school, but in her efforts she was more like a grad student. Many other students, postdocs, and colleagues are working on ongoing projects that one day will be described in great detail in original scientific publications. Together we have had and continue to have an amazing lab, with a great culture of sharing and generosity.

Hurricane Sandy hit us very hard. With a loss of electrical power, we had a mad dash to retrieve our thawing specimens in freezers—the work of thirty years of research. We rescued nearly all of the current studies, but lost some of our archives—samples obtained from villages and patients all over the world decades ago. They were irreplaceable. We were out of our home lab at the New York Veterans Affairs hospital for more than ten months and had one tribulation piled on the next. Yet with their kindness to one another, adaptability, and “can do” mentality, it was, for the lab members, their finest hour, and the storm and its aftermath provided lessons in life that can not be learned from books.

For the past eight years, my research has had major philanthropic support in the form of the Diane Belfer Program in Human Microbial Ecology. Diane was an early believer in the value of our studies. I much appreciate her enthusiasm and unwavering support, beginning when the ideas were more of a dream. Early support also came from the Ellison Medical Foundation. More recently, the Knapp Family Foundation and the Leslie and Daniel Ziff Foundation have been major sponsors of our explorations. Our work also has been supported by the D’Agostino Foundation, Hemmerdinger Foundation, Fritz and Adelaide Kaufman Foundation, Margaret Q. Landenberger Research Foundation, Graham Family Charitable Foundation, James and Patricia Cayne Trust, and Messrs. David Fox, Richard Sharfman, Michael Saperstein, Robert Spass, and Joseph Curcio, and Dr. Bernard Levine, as well as Mss. Regina Skyer, Edythe Heyman, and Lorraine DiPaolo. Donna Marino has been an incredibly effective advocate for our work. I am very grateful to all.

Our work described in this book has been supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Army, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Ellison Medical Foundation, the International Union against Cancer, the World Health Organization, and governments and universities in Japan, the Netherlands, Korea, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, France, Italy, Turkey, and Venezuela for support of visiting scholars. Institutional support came in many different forms from the NYU Langone Medical Center and from the Manhattan/NY Harbor Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

This combination of major research university, U.S. government, private foundations, international support, and philanthropy is necessary for a research program to survive and ultimately to flower.

Finally, my wife and research partner, Dr. Maria Gloria Domínguez Bello, has helped with insight, criticism, adventure, and love. I am glad that I could highlight a few of her many contributions to our shared field. My children Daniel, Genia, and Simone have been steadfast in their love and support.

As with most projects that take a long time, many hands stirred the pot and contributed greatly. I thank one and all for their wonderful help and fellowship.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

M
ARTIN
J. B
LASER
,
MD, has studied the role of bacteria in human disease for more than thirty years. He is the director of the Human Microbiome Program at NYU, served as the chair of medicine at NYU and as the president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and has had major advisory roles at the National Institutes of Health. He cofounded the
Bellevue Literary Review
and his work has been written about in publications that include
the New Yorker
,
Nature
,
The New York Times
,
The Economist
,
The Washington Post
, and
The Wall Street Journal.
His more than one hundred media appearances include
The Today Show, Good Morning America
, NPR, the BBC,
The O’Reilly Factor,
and CNN. He lives in New York City.