This article first was published by WDDE.org. the online arm of Delaware’s NPR News Station, on April 29, 2013.

To roughly two million Americans struggling with autism, chronic stomach problems have long been just another side effect. Now, it looks like the issues in their guts could actually be aggravating—or even triggering—their symptoms of autism.

A new arm of autism research has begun to explore the possibility that problems in the gut microbiome—an entire ecosystem of bacteria residing within the digestive tract that is responsible for extracting energy from food—could actually play a role in exacerbating or even causing behaviors and symptoms associated with autism.

While researchers from a variety of disciplines around the world are turning their attention to the stomach, University of Delaware Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Prasad Dhurjati is helping to put their work into context.

Read the full story archived from WDDE.org.