Mycobiomes: Dr. Iliyan Iliev Devlves into the Importance of Understanding Gut Fungi

Only recently do scientists understand the prevalence and importance of fungi in our digestive system anatomy. Dr. Iliev tells listeners about:

• How fungal microbiota, or mycobiota, changes under conditions of inflammation in the bowel.
• What this might mean regarding the relationship between fungi, bacteria, and bowel disease.
• Why a mutation of cells with a receptor sensitive to fungi might hold a key to Crohn's Disease.

Dr. Iliyan Iliev is Assistant Professor of Immunology in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. As a mucosal immunologist, he and his lab are focusing specifically on how mycobiota impacts bowel inflammation. Their work has lead them to examine how components of fungi, bacteria, and cell interaction may lead to relief from immunological bowel diseases. The balance between fungi and bacteria appears to be important in the suppression of these diseases, but more work needs to be done.

The presence of gut fungi made itself known after detecting a fungal message while undergoing cellular primer researcher. Once microbiome work became more prevalent in digestive system anatomy and deep gene sequencing became possible, scientist went back and applied this knowledge, discovering a community of different fungi in the gut.

Dr. Iliev's lab works at the strain and species level of fungi of various patients, then connecting these strains and species to the patient's condition. This gut fungi focus may help treat these inflammatory bowel diseases.

See the Ilieve Lab page at Weill Cornell Medicine for more information: https://ilievlab.weill.cornell.edu/