Introduction
Since the early 2000s, research on the human microbiome has grown significantly. Multiple research initiatives devoted to understandings of the human microbiome, such as high-profile projects like the Human Microbiome Project (funded by the National Institutes of Health) and MetaHIT (funded by the European Commission), have brought increased attention to the field. Still, research on the human microbiome remains in relative infancy. Much is yet to be known about what the microbiome is, how understandings of the microbiome intersect with and challenge prevailing conceptions of health and disease, and where microbiome research fits within the larger arena of human genomics. As this emergent research offers unique opportunities to examine the human body and human life, there are opportunities to examine the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of the research itself. This review considers the ELSI of human microbiome research as it relates to five points of...
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Achenbaum, L.S., O’Doherty, K.C., McGuire, A.L. (2015). Ethical, Legal, and Social Dimensions of Human Microbiome Research. In: Highlander, S.K., Rodriguez-Valera, F., White, B.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Metagenomics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7475-4_92
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