The recent flood of research and news articles on the human microbiome have established the microecology of the human body as an important new field. Of the 15-18 body parts sampled to collect microbes for sequencing, one was notably missing: the beard.
The Beardome project by Hydrocalypse Industries that I was part of a few years ago began to uncover some of the hidden microbiology of the beard:
While this was mostly tongue-in-(bearded)-cheek, it looks like the beard can actually be home to useful microbes. The microbrewery Rogue Ales is starting production on a new beer, brewed with a yeast found in the beard of their brewmaster. I'm really interested in the connections between the microbes on our body and the practical microbes used in our food, particularly in cheese, and this brings it to a whole new level. Beardology is a very new field, perhaps this beer will inspire us to look deeper at what is lying beneath our beards.
The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Christina Agapakis is a biologist, designer, and writer with an ecological and evolutionary approach to synthetic biology and biological engineering. Her PhD thesis projects at the Harvard Medical School include design of metabolic pathways in bacteria for hydrogen fuel production, personalized genetic engineering of plants, engineered photosynthetic endosymbiosis, and cheese smell-omics. With Oscillator and Icosahedron Labs she works towards envisioning the future of biological technologies and synthetic biology design.
