NATURE Innovations in: Mental Health: Thinking from the Gut

27 Feb 2015

'The microbiome may yield a new class of psychobiotics for the treatment of anxiety, depression and other mood disorders', Charles Schmidt, science writer, discusses Professor John Cryan's work in this recent Nature Innovations article.

'Microbes may have their own evolutionary reasons for communicating with the brain. They need us to be social, says John Cryan, a neuroscientist at University College Cork in Ireland, so that they can spread through the human population. Cryan's research shows that when bred in sterile conditions, germ-free mice lacking in intestinal microbes also lack an ability to recognize other mice with whom they interact'.

Link to full article here:  http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v518/n7540_supp/full/518S13a.html