WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Researchers on a safari for microbes have found that human skin is populated by a veritable menagerie of bacteria — 182 species — some apparently living there permanently and others just dropping by for a visit.
There’s no need for alarm, said microbiologist Dr. Martin Blaser of New York University School of Medicine: the bacteria have been with us for quite a while and some are helpful.
In research published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Blaser and his colleagues took swabs from the forearms of six healthy people to study the bacterial populations in human skin — our largest organ.
“We identify about 182 species,” Blaser said in an interview. “And based on those numbers, we estimate there are probably at least 250 species in the skin.” (more…)
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