Life Sciences

Are obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular illnesses and more the result of a “mismatch” between the meals we eat and the foods our bodies are prepared for?

The “mismatch hypothesis” argues that each of our bodies has evolved and adapted to digest the foods that our ancestors ate, and that human bodies will struggle and largely fail to metabolize a radically new set of foods.

Researchers at Princeton University have developed a systematic approach for evaluating how the microbial community in our intestines can chemically transform, or metabolize, oral medications in ways that impact their safety and efficacy. The new methodology provides a more complete picture of how gut bacteria metabolize drugs, and could aid the development of medications that are more effective, have fewer side effects, and are personalized to an individual’s microbiome.

Despite the traditional view that species do not exchange genes by hybridization, a new study led by Princeton ecologists Peter and Rosemary Grant show that gene flow between closely related species is more common than previously thought. 

A team of scientists from Princeton University and Uppsala University detail their findings of how gene flow between two species of Darwin’s finches has affected their beak morphology in the May 4 issue of the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

A study published in the journal Nature Microbiology identified factors that the hepatitis B virus uses when establishing long-term infection in the liver. The findings could help lead to treatment strategies for chronic HBV infection, a condition that increases the risk of developing liver cancer and is responsible for almost 900,000 deaths worldwide each year. Continue Reading on the Discovery: Research at Princeton blog →