An active learning exercise started by Birgit Pruess, professor of microbiological sciences, in the Gateways ND program recently was published in CourseSource.

The exercise consists of a pasta simulation of the human gut microbiome and how it responds to changes in the environment, such as taking a broad band antibiotic that may lead to infection.

Using review articles published by other authors, students are guided through a change in diet to high fat, the corresponding changes in the microbial composition in the intestine, metabolic byproducts that bacteria excrete, molecular changes in the human host cells and diseases that can occur and usually involve chronic inflammation.

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