Microbiome Research and Development: An Open Letter From Philip Hugenholtz
Posted 3rd February 2017 by Jane Williams
Dear colleague,
The structure and function of the human gut microbiome is being revealed through culture-independent molecular techniques. Many studies have found a great deal of interpersonal variability due to factors such as diet, age and ethnicity. However, there are a small number of relatively abundant microbial species that appear to be widespread in the human population.
It’s a pleasure to be making a keynote address at the upcoming Microbiome R&D and Business Collaboration Congress: Asia, enabling me to inform you about the, as yet, uncultured and uncharacterised microbial species in the human gut microbiome.
I’m also looking forward to the panel discussion on day one, which will be focused on characterising the human microbiome, what it means to have a healthy microbiome and the importance of microbial diversity. By characterising the healthy human microbiome, it not only gives us the ability to compare it to those of individuals with illnesses, but brings us a step closer to potential treatments.
This is an exciting time to be working in microbiome research. I hope that you will be able to join me in Hong Kong to review the developments and build on our knowledge of this rapidly growing field.
Best wishes,
Philip Hugenholtz
Director, Australian Centre for Ecogenomics; Professor, School of Chemistry & Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Australia
If you’re interested in attending the 3rd Microbiome R&D and Business Collaboration Congress: Asia, sign up here.
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