“ BACTERIA IN THE GUT PLAYS A BIG ROLE IN LIVER HEALTH . IN THE PAST PEOPLE DID NOT THINK GUT BACTERIA WAS RELATED TO LIVER CANCER . UNDERSTANDING A DISEASE WAS USUALLY CONFINED TO A SPECIFIC ORGAN , BUT DISEASES INVOLVE ORGAN TO ORGAN INTERACTIONS .” - WEI JIA
Left to right : Guoxiang Xie , Lu Wang , Wei Jia , Runmin Wei , Hua Yang
BACTERIA IN THE GUT
Wei Jia , PhD , associate director of Shared Resources , and his lab team continue to conduct studies on mechanisms underlying the development of liver fbrosis and liver cancer that involve the gut fora and bile acid interactions .
• Jia ’ s team found that gut bacteria interact with the liver through a number of small molecule metabolites . When the interactions go wrong , the bacteria produce more toxic metabolites causing damage to the liver .
• Jia is an expert in the feld of metabolomics , which examines how the body ’ s metabolites can indicate disease . Metabolites are substances made or used when the body breaks down food , drugs or chemicals , or its own tissues according to the National Cancer Institute .
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