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From shortly after we are born, each of us lives with 10 times as many microbial cells as human cells in our bodies. The metabolism of human cells influences that of microbial cells and vice versa. For that reason, the collection of microbial genes (the microbiome) has been called “the second human genome.”
The microbiome has been implicated as a cofactor in diseases as diverse as obesity (JW Gen Med Jan 2 2007), inflammatory bowel disease (JW Gen Med Jun 19 2008), cancer (JW Gen Med Nov 3 2011), psoriasis, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, asthma, and even autism.
The advent of rapid and relatively inexpensive genome sequencing (JW Gen Med Oct 4 2005) fueled international efforts to study the microbiom…