EP 189: From genetic heritability in twins to gut health with Tim Spector of King’s College London and Zoe

Summary: 

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London and co-founder of Zoe. They discuss surprising insights on heritability from decades of twin research, the profound impact of the microbiome on health and disease, and the effect of diet on the gut microbiome. 

Show Notes: 

0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast

00:58 Welcome to Tim and his journey from clinical medicine to pioneering twin studies and uncovering the heritability of diseases and traits

07:20 Exploring missing heritability and why twin studies and GWAS offer different answers

10:37 What a global mega twin registry could reveal about epigenetics, environment, and disease

13:40 Findings from a twin microbiome study and how that evolved into a new chapter in Tim’s research career

16:50 The profound impact of the microbiome on health

21:08 Evolution in microbiome research techniques, microbe-diet associations, and the need for longitudinal studies 

27:00 Potential reasons why fecal transplant did not turn out to be as effective as predicted

28:53 The importance of balance in the gut microbiome and how it can be involved in cancer and the drug response

35:54 Barriers to translating microbiome science into healthcare 

 

38:38 The impact of microplastics and ultra-processed foods on the microbiome

 

41:27 Moving away from diversity measures for evaluating the microbiome and towards a more comprehensive score metric

44:36 Closing remarks with information on Tim’s upcoming book as well as Zoe products and app

Find out more

• Zoe (https://zoe.com)

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