In the biomedical field, there is considerable interest in host-microbiome interactions. This is highly relevant for nutritional interventions and disease development. In particular, there is considerable interest in the role of the oral and gut microbiome. Microbiome and microbiota dependency on our nutrition and their roles in infectious disease of the gastrointestinal tract, as well as Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Obesity, Multiple Sclerosis, are highly topical areas of research.
The microbiota under study are primarily bacteria, but more and more also fungi are considered (prominently Candida species). The advent of deep-sequencing techniques allowed for the identification of many previously unknown microorganisms and their metabolic potential in and on the human host and in relevant model organisms and in vitro model culturing systems. Some prominent compounds that are under study are short-chain fatty acids, certain amino acids as ligands for the aryl-hydrocarbon receptor, and microbial cell wall fragments.