肠道微生物组的生态学

Microbial competition can be harnessed to prevent and cure deadly diseases Erik Bakkeren Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has grown rampant, with current projections estimating that >1.9 million deaths a year will be attributable to AMR-associated infections by 2050 (1). On the verge of returning to a preantibiotic era, humanity urgently needs alternative approaches to treating bacterial infections. My research has shown that we can use simple ecological principles to repurpose the resident microbes found in our intestines—the gut microbiome—to our advantage. We have known for decades that our gut microbiome protects us against disease-causing pathogens through many mechanisms (2, 3). However, we could never reliably predict which microbiome compositions confer protection. …