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In vitro ecology: a discovery engine for microbiome therapies

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To therapeutically modulate gut microbial ecosystems, a better understanding of gut ecology is key. High-throughput in vitro ecology provides a tool with the necessary power to address these needs and interpersonal treatment response variation.

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Fig. 1: Microbiome therapy development.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Raes lab members for many stimulating discussions in this area, in particular A. Biclot, G. Huys, G. Vrancken, G. Falony, S. Vieira-Silva, A. Gregory, as well as K. Faust and T. Rask Licht. E.H.-S. is supported by the Novo Nordisk Fundation (PRIMA Project).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. VIB – KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, Laboratory of Molecular Bacteriology, Rega Institute, Leuven, Belgium

    Emma Hernandez-Sanabria, Jorge Francisco Vázquez-Castellanos & Jeroen Raes

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  1. Emma Hernandez-Sanabria
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  2. Jorge Francisco Vázquez-Castellanos
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  3. Jeroen Raes
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Correspondence to Jeroen Raes.

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Competing interests

J.R. has acted or is acting as scientific advisor to Aphea.Bio, Biofortis, GSK vaccines, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Merck, MRM health and Takeda. E.H.-S. and J.F.V.-C. declare no competing interests.

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Hernandez-Sanabria, E., Vázquez-Castellanos, J.F. & Raes, J. In vitro ecology: a discovery engine for microbiome therapies. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 17, 711–712 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-020-00364-7

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