The microbiome revolution: where are we now?

Presented by Professor Emad El-Omar, Professor of Medicine at the St George and Sutherland Clinical School, UNSW Australia, and the Director of the Microbiome Research Centre at St George Hospital, Kogarah.

Professor El-Omar and his team focus on the role of chronic inflammation in GI disease, particularly malignancy. This inflammation is often microbially induced, hence they focus on understanding the gut microbiota and host bacterial interactions in several GI diseases. Their most developed research programme deals with the role of Helicobacter pylori infection in gastric cancer and they also have a strong programme on the role of the gut microbiota in colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. A new programme will address the role of the gut microbiota in hepatocellular cancer. Since 2017 they have established a Microbiome Research Centre (MRC) at St George Hospital. The MRC's aim is to facilitate collaborative research in all aspects of microbiome related health and disease, including cancer, maternal and child health, infection/inflammation/immunity, critical care and neuroscience/mental health.