I find this a fascinating subject, it would seem our gut microbiota is a driving force of much of the bio-chemistry that we experience as consciousness, serotonin, adrenaline, dopamine, oxytocin are all influenced by the state of our gut microbiota and it's great to see so much research in this area, how we feel seems to have a lot to do with what we eat...
Yes indeed. Tomorrow I'm presenting my rotation findings on outer membrane vesicle (OMV) formation in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron in the lab of Mario Feldman. Here's a TEM image of this bacteria and its OMV's: http://imgur.com/a/oJiaT
The Bacteroidetes phylum make up the largest fraction of the gut microbiome. Bacteroides is the largest class of that phylum. Unlike the OMV's of other gram negative bacteria, those of Bacteroidetes are selectively packed with cargo such as sugar hydrolyzing enzymes facing the outside.
Good luck with your presentation, you're in an astounding field at an astounding time, synthetic enzymes and bacteria will I believe open a huge field in medicine. Our understanding of the human experience, understanding mind and body as fully integrated system, is making good progress.
