Defining The Microbiome Opportunity

One of the first challenges we encounter when considering the ‘Microbiome Opportunity’ is to describe exactly what we mean by it. Here, we visualize the opportunity as a multidimensional space that organizes itself along multiple axes.

We can start by picturing an axis of mechanistic insight leading from simple associations between microbiome-based manipulations and outcomes to actual causal relationships that can be rigorously translated into robust microbiome-based applications. Along this axis, the complexity of the biological information gathered…