In this talk, neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter introduces his book Brain Maker and describes his visit to Dr. Larry Smarr, an astrophysicist turned data scientist at UC San Diego. Perlmutter explains how Smarr leverages world‑class computing power to collect and visualize his own longitudinal biometric data—including inflammatory markers (C‑reactive protein), blood parameters (hemoglobin, cholesterol) and, crucially, repeated stool microbiome analyses. The presentation highlights stark differences in the relative abundance of Firmicutes (blue) and Bacteroidetes (red) among healthy individuals, Crohn’s disease patients, ulcerative colitis patients, and Smarr himself. Perlmutter argues that these early observations signal the beginning of a new era in which detailed microbial catalogs can be linked to disease states and eventually manipulated to improve health. He closes with a quote from microbiologist Dr. Julian Davies, emphasizing the immense scale of microbial diversity compared to astronomy, and credits interdisciplinary pioneers like Smarr for driving this transformation.
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Hello, I'm Dr. David Perlmutter. We've been talking a lot about the microbiome lately. I've actually wrote my new book, Brain Maker, about the microbiome. And what is really so compelling about the microbiome is the vast amount of information that it contains. You know, 99% of the DNA within our bodies is actually bacterial. It's actually contained in those bacteria that live within us, that live on us, as well as other organisms. I recently had the great pleasure to visit Dr. Larry Smarr. Dr. Smarr is now at the University of California in San Diego, and let me take you on a little tour of a little— my experiences with Dr. Smarr. So, at the University of California San Diego, As mentioned, I had the great pleasure of meeting with this individual, Dr. Larry Smarr. Now, Dr. Smarr is actually trained as an astrophysicist. He has worked with NASA for decades. He's been an advisor to multiple presidents. And interestingly enough, his area of expertise is using computers to basically look at data. He is one of the leaders in the world, perhaps, in terms of ability to understand what it means to harvest data, how it is— how to rather use technology to crunch data. And he really has access to some of the most powerful computing equipment infrastructure really on the planet. But what really is so exciting about Dr. Smarr is he has turned his incredible ability to utilize computer technology to analyze data on himself. He has been diagnosed— this is a matter of public record— with a form of bowel inflammation, a form of colitis. And what Dr. Smarr has done is collected vast amounts of data on himself, and as I'll show you in just a moment, looking at data in terms of other people as well. Now, behind him, over his shoulder, is what he calls the wall, and I'll take— I'll show you a closer picture of the wall. The wall looks at data. He presents data. In this case, this is data taken from himself looking at multiple biometric datasets, looking at various laboratory studies. Let me just zoom in. You'll see what it is that he's demonstrating. All kinds of biometric analyses, including things like C-reactive protein, which you see in the lower left of your screen, a marker of inflammation, hemoglobin, the protein within the blood cells that binds oxygen, cholesterol markers, fat markers, other blood markers, etc. And he's looking at this data over time. But more intriguing is his analysis of his microbiome. He has repeatedly sent samples of his stool to researchers who are looking at the stool specimens in terms of the array of bacteria, the various species of bacteria, and the quantities of those particular species. And what he's done since he has colitis is he has looked, as you see in this magnified view, at the array of different organisms. In this case, the blue represents a large group of organisms found in most of us called Firmicutes, whereas the red represents Bacteroidetes. And you'll see that the Crohn's patients above, the ulcerative colitis patients in the second column, his analysis in the third column, and this— and general population in the 4th column, all have really remarkable different levels and ratios of these organisms. When you look at a large group of individuals, with the Firmicutes being in blue and the Bacteroidetes being in red, you see at casual inspection that most people have lots of Bacteroidetes and few Firmicutes. But when you look at Higher magnification, you see, in fact, great differences between individuals. Each of these panels represents the stool analysis of the particular species in each individual, and as you'll notice, there are, in fact, dramatic differences. So the point is that we are just at the very, very beginning of understanding how these incredible differences are arrayed in individual people. how these differences may correlate to specific disease processes. And ultimately, this hopefully will open the door to techniques to actually manipulate the microbiome, manipulate the levels of various species of bacteria to allow improvements in people suffering from various diseases. I'd like to end this segment by using a— by looking at a very interesting quote from Dr. Julian Davies, a microbiologist immunologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, who stated that once the diversity of the microbial world is cataloged, it will make astronomy look like a pitiful science. Well, I would say that perhaps those are harsh words if they were directed at the field of cosmology, but nonetheless, you know, Dr. Smarr is an astrophysicist And, you know, if you think it's unusual for me as a neurologist to be so involved in looking at the human microbiome, and I'm sure to many people it still seems a little unusual, think of the fact that this incredibly gifted astrophysicist has now taken it upon himself to dedicate himself and incredible computing power available to him to exploring this vast dataset that characterizes the variations in the human microbiome. We are about to see a transformation in our understanding of human health and physiology, and part of the reason this transformation is taking place is because of the dedication of individuals like Dr. Larry Smarr. Thanks for listening. I'm Dr. David Perlmutter.
