A new study published in a special issue of the journal iScience links low doses of antibiotics around birth to significant changes in the infant microbiome. The study, conducted on mice, also linked antibiotic exposure to important changes in gene expression in parts of the brain responsible for neurodevelopment. This research, “Effects of Early-Life Penicillin Exposure on the Gut Microbiome and Front Cortex and Amygdala Gene Expression,” may help explain the disturbing rise in neurodevelopmental disorders that we’re seeing in children in the United States and other industrialized countries around the world. A team of scientists from the New York University Grossman School of Medicine divided the mice into three groups. One group of pregnant mice was exposed to penicillin the week leading up to birth. The second group of mice was exposed to penicillin during the week following birth. The third group of mice, the control group, had no …