How Clean Are our Hospitals?(Originally aired June 20, 2017)

Guest: Jack Gilbert, PhD, Director, The Microbiome Center, and Professor, Surgery, University of Chicago Medicine, and Group Leader, Microbial Ecology, Argonne National Laboratory There are at least as many bacteria living in and on your body as there are cells in your body. You’re a walking bacterial colony. And guess what? Those bacteria don’t stay put. They’ve colonized your desk, your bed, your car - basically anywhere you spend a decent amount of time bears the fingerprint of your microbiome. Most of the time, the bacteria are helpful or harmless. Sometimes they’re really bad news. Understanding how this works – how our bacteria affect and are affected by our environment – is the goal of a fascinating research project being done at the University of Chicago.