The field of microbiomes is rapidly changing and new discoveries are constantly being made. One of the biggest doors that could be opened by understanding more about the connection between humans and their microbiomes is around medical advancements. Microbiomic qualities have been linked to mental health, cardiovascular diseases, and multiple sclerosis. [1] A full understanding of the connections between the gut microbiome and humans as a whole could provide solutions to these problems. Microbiome discoveries may also shine light on the effects of modern medicine and the benefits of different diets.
Recent research has found that the Yanomami people, who are completely isolated in Venezuela from non-Yanomami civilizations, harbor microbiomes far more diverse than those exposed to western medicine. The effects of the over 11,000 years of divergent evolution from the rest of the world’s medicine have given their microbiomes’ bacteria natural antibiotic resistance genes. [2] Understanding the differences of microbiomes between those exposed and isolated from western medicine can show how beneficial certain human-made antibiotics are and even how they affect our health. For example, research has shown that diet can affect the composition of the microbiome and thus things like the blood pressure in a person. [3]
Viome
The company Viome uses modern methods to analyze microbiomes and give dietary advice. Customers can pay to send gut microbiome samples to the company and receive a “Precision Health Plan” that is catered to them. Traditional methods of microbiome analysis isolate the DNA of microbes, sequence it, and then come to a conclusion regarding the health of the subject based on census-style analysis. Viome, on the other hand, doesn’t use taxonomic analysis because the composition of someone’s gut microbiome has less significance for their situation compared to what the microbes are actually doing and how they are affecting the greater organism. The strategy that Viome uses to sequence the active parts of the microbiome is metatranscriptomic; they isolate the RNA rather than the DNA. This method ensures that the genetic code being sequenced is strictly from microbes that are actively operating within the microbiome. The company uses machine learning algorithms to calculate the best fit diets for their customers, and they are doing cutting edge research in the field.
Making new discoveries and applying what is known about microbiomes can have a significant impact on human medicine. There is still a lot that is unknown in the area, but the field is rapidly growing and there are a lot of researchers conducting experiments on many different sides of the subject. Microbiomes are not well known beyond those who study them, but they hold the potential to change everyone’s lives.
