{"id":180110,"date":"2024-01-09T07:22:37","date_gmt":"2024-01-09T13:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/umass-chan-researchers-identify-molecular-link-between-gut-bacteria-and-excitatory-brain-signaling-in-c-elegans"},"modified":"2024-01-09T07:22:37","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T13:22:37","slug":"umass-chan-researchers-identify-molecular-link-between-gut-bacteria-and-excitatory-brain-signaling-in-c-elegans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/umass-chan-researchers-identify-molecular-link-between-gut-bacteria-and-excitatory-brain-signaling-in-c-elegans","title":{"rendered":"UMass Chan researchers identify molecular link between gut bacteria and excitatory brain signaling in C. elegans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/umass-chan-researchers-identify-molecular-link-between-gut-bacteria-and-excitatory-brain-signaling-in-c-elegans.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A new study published in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41556-023-01299-2\"><em> Nature Cell Biology <\/em><\/a> by Mark Alkema, PhD, professor of neurobiology, establishes an important molecular link between specific B12-producing bacteria in the gut of the roundworm <em>C. elegans<\/em> and the production of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter important to memory and cognitive function.<\/p>\n<p>There is growing recognition among scientists that diet and gut microbiota may play an important role in brain health. Changes in the composition of the microbiome have been linked to neurological disorders such as anxiety, depression, migraines and neurodegeneration. Yet, teasing out the cause and effect of individual bacteria or nutrients on brain function has been challenging.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are more bacteria in your intestine than you have cells in your body,\u201d said Woo Kyu Kang, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Alkema lab and first author of the current study. \u201cThe complexity of the brain, the hundreds of bacterial species that comprise the gut microbiome and the diversity of metabolites make it almost impossible to discern how bacteria impact brain function.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study published in Nature Cell Biology by Mark Alkema, PhD, professor of neurobiology, establishes an important molecular link between specific B12-producing bacteria in the gut of the roundworm C. elegans and the production of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter important to memory and cognitive function. There is growing recognition among scientists that diet and gut [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":511,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1495,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-health","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/511"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}