Studies of the microbiome should be integral to future precision medicine initiatives, argue scientists from the University of Chicago in a new commentary published Nov. 1 in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences.
A growing body of research shows the microbiome — the community of bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microorganisms living in the body, mostly in the digestive tract — plays a crucial role in human health and disease. Because of its influence on disease states and response to treatments, write Thomas Kuntz, a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry, and Jack Gilbert, PhD, Faculty Director of the Microbiome Center, the microbiome should play a crucial role in the field of personalized medicine, which has been dominated thus far by genetics.
