Abstract

The gut microbiota affects numerous aspects of human health, including host metabolism, immunity and brain function. Sequencing methods have revolutionized our understanding of the taxonomic identities of members of the human gut microbiota and their associations with various diseases. However, important barriers have remained in the microbiota field, namely a lack of resources for functional and mechanistic studies and concerns about the application and relevance to human disease of microbiota research performed in animal models. To help overcome these barriers, we have developed biological and bioinformatic tools that now enable us to map and test functional capabilities of the gut microbiota from mice and humans to establish how multiple microbial species with shared functions can achieve similar effects on host immune and neuronal phenotypes. Using these resources we are now elaborating the mechanisms by which metabolites from commensal gut microbes modulate infection susceptibility, neuronal development and responses to tumour immunotherapy.