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RESEARCH
The discovery of penicillin almost a century ago, triggered a radical change in human-bacterial relationship. Suddenly, for the first time in human existence major mortality causing agents such as Streptococcus and tuberculosis were controlled. Towards the end of the 20th century this welcomed control of bacterial-associated mortality induced a shift in research priorities to other major death causing causes such as cancer, heart diseases and metabolic disorders. Recent advances in deep-DNA-sequencing have revived interest in microbial research and revealed the vast involvement of bacteria in human health ("superorganism") and in conditions such as obesity and cancer. As faculty member of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Dentistry School in Jerusalem, our group was interested in the oral anaerobe Fusobacterium nucleatum and are one of few laboratories capable of molecular work with this organism. The recent finding of fusobacteria in colon cancer ignited our interest in BacteriOncology, a fascinating revived field that will hopefully lead to the development of novel approaches for cancer detection and treatment.
