Microbiome Research: Past, Present, and Future

Dear Colleagues,

At the turn of the century, the human genome was sequenced, which was hailed as a breakthrough. Experts thought that this milestone would lead to answers for many key questions in human health; researchers believed that the complete DNA sequence would help pinpoint the causes of diseases and revolutionize medicine. However, it was not long before the scientific community began seeking answers from another frontier: the human microbiome. 

With advances in high-throughput technologies, scientists are aiming to explore the complex host–microbe interactions that influence conditions such as obesity, autoimmune disorders, and mental health. Despite considerable efforts, the search for these answers has faced numerous challenges. Along the way, many studies have focused on identifying specific microbes associated with health and disease, often overlooking the functional redundancy between any two microbes.

The quest to define healthy microbiomes has gained some traction in the context of clear functional requirements; for example, the microbiomes of healthy infants must include molecular activities that enable the digestion of human milk oligosaccharides. In the same vein, researchers have come to recognize that long-term health is shaped not only by specific microbes but by the collective interactions in the microbiota and that the microbiome influences the human body in many ways.

Current estimates suggest that, including metagenome-assembled genomes, only 50% of the human microbiome has been sequenced, with an even smaller fraction of microbial functional activities having been fully characterized. Significant gaps remain in our understanding of these uncharacterized species and molecular activities, including their roles in health and disease.

For this Special Issue, we invite original research articles, perspectives, mini-reviews, commentaries, and opinion papers that contribute toward advancing these critical areas.

Dr. Eric Patridge
Guest Editor

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