What do we actually know about the 100 trillion bacteria that live on and inside our bodies? Alexandra Carmichael, formerly of Quantified Self, CureTogether, and 23andMe, gave this talk at SXSW in Austin on March 16th, 2015.

1. What’s In Your Gut?
Lessons From The Microbiome
SXSW 2015 talk
Alexandra Carmichael
Director of Community at uBiome

2. let’s start with stretching for a sec

3. that’s better.
now who am I?

4. director of QS for 3 years,
growing it to 92 cities

5. co-founder of CureTogether,
acquired by 23andMe

6. now at uBiome
(red pants!)

7. why study the
microbiome?

8. 100 trillion bacteria dance
with you

9. you have as many as
10 times more bacterial
cells than human cells

10. we haven’t known much
about them until 2012…

11. … when the human
microbiome project
sequenced all DNA from
the human microbiome

12. uBiome started the same year

13. we make microbiome testing
available to everyone

14. 5 test sites:
gut
mouth
skin
nose
genitals

15. warning:
I’m a data nudist

16. this is my gut

17. why is my gut
actinobacteria 7x more
than average?

18. good guys
they’re anti-inflammatory good guys

19. maybe because I drink
so much kombucha?

20. this is my skin

21. why is there no
actinobacteria
on my skin?

22. acne
on skin,
these
guys can
contribute
to
acne

23. thanks mom?
I’ve always had pretty
clear skin

24. but enough about me…

25. what else are we
learning?

26. 1. is there a difference
between male and female
gut microbiomes?

27. uBiome data says they’re the same!

28. 2. meet a real-life
microbiome hacker

29. Richard Sprague

30. he hacked his sleep with potato
starch and uBiome testing

31. 3. do gut and mouth
microbiomes have a
signature?

32. here are 1000 mixed up
gut and mouth samples

33. and here they are
separated
pretty cool, right?

34. 4. helping teenagers
with crohn’s

36. 9 teens with Crohn’s had
fecal microbiome transplants
(gut bacteria from a healthy donor)
7 of them were in remission
after 2 weeks
5 were still in remission
after 12 weeks

37. so much still to discover

39. what will you learn?

40. use discount code
SXSWbacteria
for kit orders at ubiome.com
(code expires march 22)

41. come play with us at:
twitter @ubiome
facebook.com/ubiome
ubiomeblog.com
alexandra@ubiome.com

42. thanks for reading!
hugs, alexandra