Today’s episode will cover the Microbiome: teasing out the buzz from reality.

“The microbiome is the one part of the genome of the pigs that we can modify. In the future, microbiome analysis will be as common as PCR are today.” – Dr. Andres Gomez.

Our guest is Dr. Andres Gomez, one of the bright minds of the Global Swine Industry. Dr. Gomez is Assistant Professor at University of Minnesota and his research interests focus on using molecular, bioinformatic and machine learning tools to study the composition and function of the microbiome associated to animals and humans, it's interaction with the host genomic landscape and it's influence on host nutrition, health, ecology and evolution.

What you will learn:

- How he got involved in pig production and he walks us through his career until today;

- What is the microbiome;

- Why is there a hype about gut microbiomes in different areas of science;

- The state of the gut microbiome research in pig production;

- Association vs. Causation in gut microbiome research;

- The biggest misconception about the swine gut microbiome;

- The benefits can we get from gut microbiome research in the swine nutrition, health and production fields; 

- What sets apart successful professionals from those who are not.

- Andres’ favorite microbiome-related book: Gastrointestinal microbiology

- Andres’ favorite book unrelated to microbiome: The autobiography of Malcolm X

Edited by Lauro Faccin