A world inside each one of us

There are only a few good reasons why a child might be seen in a Hudson Institute lab.

Work experience might explain it, or perhaps a researcher briefly juggling parenting duties during school holidays, but the most likely explanation is a much more sobering one.

Usually, the child paying a visit has a life-altering, possibly fatal disease, and he or she has come to meet the people working to change that situation.

Charlotte and Noah fit into the latter category; they both have Ulcerative Colitis, a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) that is incurable, painful and disruptive, often requiring hospitalisation and surgery.

In rare cases, it can be life threatening.

13-year-old Charlotte and 11-year-old Noah already know more about IBD than most people, but few people anywhere on in the world know as much about it as Professor Sam Forster.

His research combines expertise in microbiology, immunology and computational biology to understand the function of the microbiome – the microbial communities that exist inside every human gut – and its role in IBD, among other diseases.

“In every one of us, the gut is home to a unique assortment of microbes,” he says. “Like a rainforest or coral reef, these microbes form complex ecosystems that perform critical functions, including ensuring our health.”

“Thanks to modern practices like over-use of antibiotics, both in humans and agriculture, many of these microbes are disappearing before we even know what they do.

“There is an urgent need to understand this amazing system because, it’s a rapidly closing window that could hold the clue to any number of health conditions,” Prof Forster says.

With his team at Hudson Institute, the focus is on understanding the forgotten friendly microbes: what they are, what they do, and how their absence can weaken communities and invite disease.

For people living with IBD, like Charlotte and Noah, the ultimate aim is to prevent inflammation from happening at all rather than pursing treatments that try to control it after it already exists.

As well as his lab-based work, Prof Forster has the advantage of colleagues like Dr Ed Giles, a Paediatric Gastroenterologist at Monash Health, who coincidentally, is Charlotte’s doctor.

They work together to develop and test new techniques and theories for fighting IBD, without ever losing sight of the people – even very young ones – who will benefit from their efforts.

Their aim is to build off previous discoveries to develop new therapeutic approaches for IBD that will target particular species of bacteria and could one day transform treatment for IBD patients.

But it is work that needs funding, not just for Noah and Charlotte’s sakes, but to keep Australia at the forefront of this vital, time-sensitive area of medical research.