January 2016 Luncheon Speaker
Tue, January 26 2016, 11:30am
Campus Club ABC
Alexander Khoruts is an associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, and he is a graduate of the University of Minnesota. Some have titled his work, “Gut Reaction,” but it is much more complex than that, and most important his work has developed a procedure that is saving thousands of lives. Dr. Khoruts’s clinical interest is gastroenterology with a particular focus on immune disorders affecting gut function.
During the past decade there has been a revolution in medicine calling for a major revision of the germ theory of disease. Over the centuries, our society and its physicians, have learned to view microbes mostly as potential pathogens. Traditional clinical microbiologists have been able to isolate and grow many pathogens in the laboratory, and we learned how to kill them. Many infectious diseases have been largely defeated with this approach over the past century.
However, the pathogen-centric framework of thinking ignored the microbial communities that are an integral part of the human body. Indiscriminate use of antimicrobial drugs does have serious costs. First and foremost, this includes emergence of new superbugs resistant to most antibiotics, such as Clostridium difficile, vancomycin-resistant entertococci (VRE), carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteraceae (CRE, or “nightmare bacteria”), and many others. These formidable pathogens are normally prevented from causing disease by microbes indigenous within our bodies. This emerging new threat was recently identified by the white House as one of the most urgent problems of this time.
New approaches are needed to counteract this problem. Dr. Khoruts and his team have been the leaders in the country in developing the new field of “Microbiota Therapeutics.” they were the first group to demonstrate that it is possible to engraft entire microbial communities from healthy donors into recipient patients suffering from recurrent C. difficile infections. Because of this work, the procedure became known as “fecal microbiota transplants” or FMT. they then standardized the process, which has now been taken up throughout the country with thousands of patients receiving this life-saving treatment.
Dr. Khoruts believes this is only the beginning of a new chapter in medicine. There are many challenges ahead, including:
- Development of new microbiota therapeutics for other infectious disease problems.
- Development of a helpful regulatory framework.
- Applying microbiota therapeutics to the maladies that have become commonplace in the 21st century, including obesity, diabetes, autoimmunity, inflammatory bowel disease, atopic diseases, and even neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.
—Donna Peterson, UMRA president-elect
Upcoming Events
We are fortunate to have UMRA member and former Minnesota Landscape Arboretum director Peter Moe to lead this approximately 3.7-mile hike at the Arboretum on Monday, May 6. Plan to have lunch together after the hike at the Eatery café inside the Oswald Visitor Center.
This session will continue the discussion begun in the May 8, 2023 session. See that article for details.
If you currently live in your own home or apartment, have you looked ahead to when you might want to consider a senior living option? Do you have any idea what those options might be? How much they cost? What they provide? UMRA’s May 14 workshop will provide an overview of the world of senior living and the basic information you need.
You’re invited to join the final Family History Interest Group meeting for 2023–24. This will be an opportunity to ask questions related to family history, share insights, talk about recent projects, and suggest topics for next year.
Stephanie Daily will lead the discussion of Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by best-selling author Mary Roach when the UMRA Book Club meets via Zoom at 2 p.m. on Friday, May 17.
The May 20 hike will start at the Historic Lift Bridge in Stillwater and go along the river to the new bridge, cross over and then back on the Wisconsin side, a total of approximately 5 miles. Most of the route is paved. We will eat lunch after at Brian's Bar and Grill in Stillwater. Car pooling will be available.
Climatologist and meteorologist Mark Seeley joined the U of M faculty in 1978 and has been a weekly commentator on Minnesota Public Radio since 1992. We are honored to welcome him as our guest speaker for UMRA’s May Luncheon Forum and 2024 Annual Meeting. He is always entertaining and informative.
UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club welcomes back, for the second time, author Julie Schumacher, U of M Regents professor of creative writing and English, for a conversation about her novel The Shakespeare Requirement.
We are in for a treat on June 3! Lynn Anderson, will lead us on trails at two parks near her Monticello home. Bring a bag lunch and we will gather in Lynn's yard along the Mississippi River for eating and socializing after the hike.
Get out to the ballpark with fellow UMRA members for the annual U of M Day at Target Field as the Minnesota Twins take on the Oakland Athletics on June 14 at 7:10 p.m.
Please join us at 9:30 on June 17, 2024 for a walk around Lake Como in St. Paul before attending the UMRA Summer Social and Picnic starting at 11 at the Como Pavilion. A perfect opportunity to get in a walk before we gather to celebrate summer.
Picnic under the covered, open-air Como pavilion, gaze at the water, spy some birds, catch up with friends and former colleagues, and meet new members. We’ll have lunch with plenty of time for visiting and then compete in teams as we are challenged by our Quiz master(s)!
Healthy aging, mindfulness, fighting ageism, and more will be the focus of the third annual Age-Friendly University Day to be held on the U of M Twin Cities campus.