Probiotics and Discovery with Eamonn Quigley, MD

In this episode, Eamonn Quigley, MD, joins us to discuss his journey into gastroenterology, probiotics and pearls of wisdom to the next generation of physician investigators. Brought to you by Red Hill Biopharma. Intro :26 Who was the person or persons that got you interested in GI? 1:01 Was endoscopy available at the time that you started your GI training or did that come later? 3:39 What's the story behind emigrating to the United States? 4:29 The legacy of Sid Phillips 6:54 Where did your travels take you after Mayo Clinic? 9:21 When did you start looking at the microbiome? 9:27 How did that partnership shape your thinking? 13:25 Tell us the story behind Bifidobacterium infantis 35624 17:56 What should patients and providers look for when they're considering a probiotic to purchase? 23:10 How do you frame this to patients when they're so motivated to try probiotics for a disease or a symptom for which there's not strong data? 28:39 How durably can you really shift a healthy person's microbiome? 30:18 Is there something that you wish GI doctors were doing differently with regards to probiotics from what they're doing now? 34:53 What do you think we need to get to a point where we can prescribe probiotics in a precision medicine perspective? 35:59 Do you think it's going to be more microbiome or more metabolome that will really be the place to look for biomarkers? 38:13 What are some of the big challenges that you think are unique to running clinical trials of probiotics? 40:26 What has your experience been with regards to collaborative approaches with investigators outside of GI? 41:54 Where do we move forward from here? What are the types of questions that young investigators should be thinking about in the near-term future? 43:31 What advice would you give to other physician investigators, perhaps younger ones, who want to follow in your footsteps? 45:50 Thank you, Dr. Quigley 51:05 Eamonn Quigley, MD, is the chief of the division of gastroenterology and hepatology at Weill Cornell Medical College at Houston Methodist Hospital, past president of the American College of Gastroenterology and past president of the World Gastroenterology Organization. Disclosures: Berry and Chey report no relevant financial disclosures. Quigley discovered Align Probiotic (Procter & Gamble). We'd love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to Dr. Berry and Dr. Chey at [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter @HealioGastro @sameerkberry @umfoodoc