Opinion Paper: Promise and Pragmatism in Clinical Microbiome Research

The evolution of human microbiome research has lead to a systems biology approach that encompasses multidisciplinary investigations. The implementation of next generation sequencing technologies has allowed researchers to study unculturable organisms, discover novel ones, and provide insights into the role of the human microbiome in health and disease. When these approaches are applied to large-scale longitudinal studies designed to interrogate the association of the microbiome with specific clinical outcomes, the development of new therapeutics and diagnostics intended to modulate or detect changes in microbiome composition to improve human health are born. We are just starting to unravel the role of the microbiome in a wide-variety of diseases, and while some of it appears to be related to causation and provide opportunities for intervention, a good dose of pragmatism is warranted as the field is still in its infancy.