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Rutgers researchers are part of an international call for a microbiome moonshot, a massive, coordinated effort to pinpoint how certain microorganisms inside us drive chronic disease and how others can be harnessed for repair.

Antibiotics, cesarean births, infant formula and diets rich in heavily processed foods can change the microbes that live in and on our bodies. These trillions of microorganisms, collectively known as the human microbiome, help shape immunity and metabolism.

For years, Rutgers microbiologists Martin Blaser and Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, along with other leading microbiome researchers, have suspected that disruptions to those microbial communities may help explain the nearly simultaneous rise of chronic conditions such as obesity, asthma and food allergies. Evidence for those connections has increased, but proving (or disproving) a cause-and-effect relationship, rather than mere correlation, requires more research funding for large and lengthy controlled experiments in humans.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services isn't committing extra money to microbiome research yet. Still, the steady flow of interesting study results was enough for the federal agency to invite Blaser, Dominguez-Bello and 10 other top global researchers for a roundtable discussion aimed at designing an ambitious proposal for research and public education.

Their plan , outlined in Nature Medicine , identifies 10 priorities for testing the microbiome's role in chronic disease and developing ways to protect or restore microbial functions that support health.

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