Microbes in us and their role in human health and disease
Final outcomes from the most comprehensive analysis to-date of humans and their microbiomes definitively link microbes and microbial activities with health problems. There is a mighty but invisible kingdom of microbes present within your body. Small yet incredibly powerful, these thousands of species and trillions of inhabitants live in all parts of your body and make up the diverse human microbiome. These microbiomes support and maintain your health but also, when the microbiome is disturbed in some fashion, have been linked to hundreds of ailments such as cancers, and autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases. Hence it is not surprising that the human microbiome is an important avenue of health research. It is one with crucial implications for our health, as a slew of recently published papers in Nature from phase two of the Human Microbiome Project suggests. Who’s there? Surveying the microbiome in humans The National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Common Fund esta...