Noam Bar

TL;DR: Genotype and microbiome data from 1,046 healthy individuals with several distinct ancestral origins who share a relatively common environment are examined, and it is demonstrated that the gut microbiome is not significantly associated with genetic ancestry, and that host genetics have a minor role in determining microbiome composition.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that Akkermansia muciniphila (AM) ameliorates whereas Ruminococcus torques and Parabacteroides distasonis exacerbate the symptoms of ALS, and it is suggested that environmentally driven microbiome–brain interactions may modulate ALS in mice.

TL;DR: A randomized crossover trial of two 1-week-long dietary interventions comprising consumption of either traditionally made sourdough-leavened whole-grain bread or industrially made white bread shows marked personalization in both bread metabolism and the gut microbiome, suggesting that understanding dietary effects requires integration of person-specific factors.

TL;DR: The authors systematically characterize structural variation in the genomes of gut microbiota and show that they are associated with bacterial fitness and with host risk factors, and that examining genes coded in these regions facilitates investigation of mechanisms that may underlie these associations.

TL;DR: The levels of 1,251 metabolites are measured in serum samples from a unique and deeply phenotyped healthy human cohort of 491 individuals, and machine-learning algorithms reveal that diet and the microbiome are the determinants with the strongest predictive power for the levels of these metabolites.