For some time now we have seen articles on the notion of good bacteria and on a new and revolutionary approach in the world of cosmetics. If these subjects are fascinating, this infatuation and the whimsical statements of some are annoying. There are many approximations and some speakers are more folkloric than credible! This question has already been dealt with by the Observatory of Cosmetics, but it seemed to me that in the face of certain assertions, it is good tone to return to this subject.
Among the many confusions, there is that which consists in confusing bacteria and biotechnologies. As far as the world of bacteria is concerned, reference is made to the microbiome, i.e. the characterisation or direct use of bacteria. The second area is biotechnology, which involves producing interesting substances in this way.
Let's go back to the microbiome. An international program, the HMP for Human Microbiome Project[1][2], started in 2007, aims to identify and characterize all microorganisms colonizing an animal with a very clear extension towards humans. It is estimated that bacteria in the human body are about ten times more numerous than its own cells. All their populations form an ecosystem of which little is known and which is now the subject of studies. This ecosystem is called the microbiota. Microbiome refers to the experimental approach that uses genomic methods, because rather than sequencing genomics genes in sequence, the microbiome is the genomics approach;of all bacterial species, meta-genomic methods are used, applicable to a complete ecosystem. So for now, it's about bacteria.
Early work has shown that this system plays a very important role in regulating several functions in humans [3]. What has been more specifically studied concerns the intestinal flora and …
