The Bugs Within Our Body: The Human Microbiota

Abstract

The human microbiota is the ecological community of microorganisms that live within our bodies. Emerging evidence has revealed that dysregulation of the host-microbe symbiotic relationship contributes to the pathogenesis of a vast number of human diseases and impacts the efficacy and toxicity of therapeutic drugs. Therefore, a deeper understanding of the human microbiota is crucial to the development of therapeutic interventions that target the microbiota and also provides fundamental insights towards understanding intersubject variability in therapeutic outcomes.