When it comes to intestines, it sure seems like two are better than one. I asked my friend Franck Carbonero why that is. He’s a microbiologist at Washington State University. He studies the bacteria ...

The gut microbiome is an important ecosystem of microbes that lives in each one of us, and its strength affects our overall health. However, the small intestine is an underappreciated part of the gut ...

Gut stem cells can detect invading bacteria and transform into bacteria-killing cells, revealing an unexpected immune defense ...

An enteroscopy is a procedure that uses a flexible tube called an endoscope to examine inside the small intestine. Enteroscopy is a nonsurgical procedure to diagnose and manage conditions of the small ...

The US humorist Christopher Morley once described the human body as “an ingenious assembly of portable plumbing”. He wasn’t wrong: from our cardiovascular and lymphatic systems to our guts and urinary ...

This story is part of a series exploring human anatomy and physiology complexities. Each story in this collection showcases discoveries reshaping our understanding of the body's inner workings, ...

Microbiome research to date has been much like the parable of the blind men and the elephant. How much can be said about an elephant by examining just its tail? Researchers have studied what is most ...

Small intestine cancer is rare, with adenocarcinomas being the most common type, often occurring in the duodenum. Diagnosis involves imaging, endoscopy, and biopsy, with staging determined by the TNM ...