Dennis L. Kasper

TL;DR: The genomic sequence of six strains representing the five major disease-causing serotypes of Streptococcus agalactiae, the main cause of neonatal infection in humans, was generated and Mathematical extrapolation of the data suggests that the gene reservoir available for inclusion in the S. agalactic pan-genome is vast and that unique genes will continue to be identified even after sequencing hundreds of genomes.

TL;DR: It is reported here that the prominent human symbiont Bacteroides fragilis protects animals from experimental colitis induced by Helicobacter hepaticus and that molecules of the bacterial microbiota can mediate the critical balance between health and disease.

TL;DR: The role of early-life education of the immune system during this “window of opportunity,” when disruption of optimal host-commensal interactions can lead to persistent and in some cases irreversible defects in the development and training of specific immune subsets is discussed.

TL;DR: It is shown that in germ-free (GF) mice, invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells accumulate in the colonic lamina propria and lung, resulting in increased morbidity in models of IBD and allergic asthma as compared with that of specific pathogen-free mice.