R ESE A RC H
Spotlight
by Sara Carney
The Tiny World Inside Your Pet The word “ecosystem” often evokes images of vast terrain and large expanses of wilderness, often at the continental or planetary scale. But, ecosystems aren’t always so massive. In fact, people, dogs, cats, and all other animals harbor tiny ecosystems within their guts and on their skin. This tiny world made up of microbes and metabolites is known as the microbiome. The microscopic microcosm within the guts of our pet cats and dogs is the subject of Dr. Jan Suchodolski’s research. As the associate director of research and head of microbiome sciences at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences’ (CVM) Gastrointestinal (GI) Laboratory, Suchodolski is much like a biologist trekking through unknown terrain to characterize and understand the life present. And, he is part of one of only two labs in the nation specializing in research on the companion animal microbiome.
Dr. Suchodolski and second-year DVM student, Hannah L. Klein.
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• Winter 2017
The microbiome is a relatively new field of study, making Suchodolski’s research cutting edge. He has spent much of his research career uncovering what makes up our pet’s digestive tract. But, Suchodolski’s work is more than just identification; he is also working on understanding how the microbiome affects the overall health of the digestive system and beyond. “In the past, we focused on understanding ‘who’ makes up the microbiome, categorizing the bacterial groups present in the GI tract,” Suchodolski said. “Over the last 10 years, we have acquired newer, better tools to characterize the bacteria. The next big step is understanding their function, and that’s what we’re doing now.” Understanding function means understanding how the microbiome influences disease processes and what a healthy—or unhealthy—microbiome looks like. This means being able to understand the root causes of and contributors