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Microbiome Course

Designed for graduates of the
Functional Nutrition course
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More about the course

The Microbiome course is available to graduates of the Functional Nutrition Course or by application only.
Changes in the microbiome have a direct link to many of today’s ‘modern diseases’. Graduates of the Functional Nutrition course are invited to continue their education and learn the most cutting edge research on the microbiome and microbiota.
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Internationally Accredited

The microbiota is the collection of microorganisms (mostly bacteria) that live both on and within our bodies.

One of the largest body sites that microorganisms like to populate is the gut. The gut contains 95% percent of our microbiota. Our microbiota plays an important role in digestion and the syntheses of vitamins; the development and maintenance of the immune system; communication with the brain and other tissues, and many more amazing processes.

Microorganisms outnumber our own cells by ten-to-one; Humans are made up of approximately ten trillion cells while our hidden microbial world that inhabits us has one hundred trillion cells.

The microbiome is the collection of all the genomes and genes housed in the microbiota. In us, the human genome contributes to approximately 23,000 genes that make us, well us! Many changes in the gut microbiota have been linked to a whole array of disorders and disease states including depression, food intolerance, obesity, cancer, inflammatory bowel disease and chronic disease.

The microbiota is the collection of microorganisms (mostly bacteria) that live both on and within our bodies.
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Who is this course for?

It is perfect for you if you are:

  • A graduate of the Functional Nutrition Course

  • Looking to develop your knowledge and understanding of the microbiome

  • Passionate about helping people understand the importance of gut health

  • Working in the health industry and looking to enhance your existing career

  • Prior learning is recognised by application

Book a Discovery Call

Expand your knowledge with the latest microbiome and microbiota research

$997.00

What will you learn?


In this module we will introduce you to some general facts about microbes and some of their peculiarities. You will come to know your microbiota on a more intimate level and discover that while some microbiota are harmful, most of them are needed for our survival.  The key to developing a good sense of where we, as humans, are placed in this world is to look at the sheer number of microorganisms that exist and their essential role in planetary health. Without these guys, we would not exist. 

Lessons covered in this module include:

- How to define microbiota and microbiome
- An understanding of the size of the microbiome and the number of microbiota housed within the human body 
- Decoding the difference between eukaryotes and prokaryotes
- How bacteria are grouped: aerobic, anaerobic and fermentation
- Describing ecological theory


This module will introduce you to some basic facts about microbes. We will look at some of the characteristics that microorganisms (specifically bacteria) have and some of their strategies that enable them to thrive and survive. This knowledge about the inner workings of microbial structure and function is designed to help you understand how disease occurs at a more physiological level. 

Lessons covered in this module include:

- Comparing anaerobic versus aerobic respiration
- Understanding how bacteria divide and multiply
- The differences between eukaryotes versus prokaryotes
- Endogenous and exogenous infections
- Susceptibility to infection
- How bacteria evades the host immune system


This module will introduce you to the anatomy of the Gastrointestinal (GI) tract and the microbiota that resides there. 

Lessons covered in this module include:

- The GI Tract and its various components
- How the human host maintains its microbiota
- What species of bacteria live in the gut


It is critical to know the kind of ‘bugs’ that inhabit our gut so that we can understand their role in health and disease. This module briefly touches on the various cellular domains with a particular emphasis of the bacteria domain. Then, we identify the main players involved in our gut health and how changes in their composition (through host behaviour) may influence disease states.

Lessons covered in this module include:

- A classification of microorganisms
- Firmicutes and Bacteroides — their role in health and disease
- How diet and the environment might affect gut health through the modification of the microbiota


Microbes inhabit almost every part of the human body and they play major roles in our health and wellbeing. Changes in the host environment can affect the delicate balance between microbe and host and as a consequence — lead to disease.  This module will explore some tissue types and their resident microbes, with a special focus on the role of microbes in the gut and inflammatory bowel disease and the concept of the ‘leaky’ gut syndrome.

Lessons covered in this module include:

- Bacteria — what kinds live on us and in us and the various kinds of infections they can cause
- How ulcers are formed
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- The theory of the leaky gut
- SIBO versus IBS-related symptoms


From the day we are born until the day we die, our microbiota is with us. During adulthood the microbiota is relatively stable; however, infants and the elderly represents stages in life where the microbiota is in flux. Module 6 introduces you to the mother and child and their unique microbial relationship. We also explore the aging process on the microbiota and how changes in our health over our lifespan can affect the composition of the microbiota.

Lessons covered in this module include:

- The effect of natural birth versus C-section on the child’s microbiota
-The hygiene hypothesis — how a lower incidence of childhood infections may lead to disorders and disease in later life
- Changes in our microbiota as we advance in age 


The “biotic” field is enormous and growing at such a rapid rate. Antibiotics are so over-prescribed; given out like candy, and are having huge implications on our health and the healthcare system due to bacteria developing antibiotic resistance to these drugs. Furthermore, what impact are antibiotics having on our natural microbiota?  And what about the more health-beneficial ‘biotics’, pro- and prebiotics? How are these interacting with our natural microflora? This module aims to answer some of these questions.

Lessons covered in this module include:

- The rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria
- Strategies aimed to reduce antibiotic resistance
- How antibiotics affect the microbiota
- The positive health benefits of pre- and pro-biotics


Obesity is a global issue. Once thought of as a western issue, obesity is now becoming epidemic in developing countries. Lifestyle, poor nutritional status, the environment and genetics all interplay in a complex manner to produce the obesity phenotype. Recently, another complex process has been added to this complexity: the microbiota. We now know that the microbiota plays a major role in health and disease and specifically has been linked to obesity. 

This module aims to give you an insight into how the microbiota is connected to the obese phenotype.

Lessons covered in this module include:

- The economic, physical and psychological effects that obesity places on society and the communities      in which we live
- The complex nature of obesity and its impact on the obese phenotype
- Why twin studies are an excellent model to study the obese phenotype
- Mechanisms that link the gut microbiota to obesity


This module will give you an insight into how our immune system and the microbiota are interconnected. Drawing from all of the previous modules, you will discover how the human body and our gut microbe inhabitants are truly in a symbiotic relationship that helps benefit each other in a way that maximizes the health and well-being of the organism.

- Lessons covered in this module include:

- The role of the immune system and inflammation
- The factors that must be present in order for a microorganism to cause human disease, including host     genetics and the specific tissue localization of the microorganism
- The importance of the mucosal firewall
- The role of sex in determining autoimmune disorders and disease.


The microbial-host interactions in health and disease are highly complex. In this context, several technologies are making progress to understand these interactions but it will take many years before scientists fully comprehend the enormous complexity of these systems. Technological advances in DNA sequencing to identify specific microbial species are emerging, as are technologies aimed at analyzing host-microbe interactions, however these are still limiting in sensitivity and specificity. Accordingly, this final module will introduce you to some of those technologies and what the future might hold for therapeutic opportunities to treat disease and improve health outcomes. 

Lessons covered in this module include:

- Global projects involved in understanding human health and the microbiota/microbiome. 
- The advantages and pitfalls of DNA sequencing to identify microbial species
- The microbiome and the future of medicine — Important questions that need to be answered 
- Technological resources that are needed to move forward to fully comprehend the complexity of the         human-microbial interaction and interface

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