The Rome Foundation and the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) were pleased to present their 3rd annual lectureship at Digestive Diseases Week (DDW). The lectureship was designed to address broad aspects of health care that are relevant to digestive diseases and the functional GI disorders.

Erwin G. Zoetendal, PhD
Assistant Professor
Laboratory for Microbiology
Wageningen University
Wageningen
The Netherlands
Moderated by Co-Chairs Lin Chang, MD, and Douglas Drossman, MD, Dr. Zoetendal shed light on the mysteries of gut microbiota and provided an overview of gastrointestinal tract microbiota diversity by discussing culture-independent approaches to study microbiota diversity in relation to health and disease including functional gastrointestinal disorders as well as culture-independent approaches to study microbiota genetic potential and activity.

The speaker was Erwin G. Zoetendal, PhD who spoke on:

Understanding Gut Microbiota: A New Era in Gastroenterology.

The objectives were:

• Provide an overview of gastrointestinal tract microbiota diversity
• Discuss culture-independent approaches to study microbiota diversity in relation to health and disease, including functional gastrointestinal disorders.
• Discuss culture-independent approaches to study microbiota genetic potential and activity.