Book Review: Welcome to the Microbiome

Book Review: Welcome to the Microbiome

Welcome to the Microbiome is at the top of my list of recommended books about the human microbiome. Written by scientists and museum curators, Dr. Susan Perkins and Dr. Rob DeSalle to accompany the American Museum of Natural History’s microbiome exhibit “The Secret World Inside You”, Welcome to the Microbiome, introduces readers to not only to the human microbiome, but also to the science behind the research. It is aimed at people interested in the process and findings of the newly emerging field of microbiome biology and its importance for human existence and health. This book introduces anyone interested in basic cell biology, genomics, and microbiology to these subjects while weaving stories about human-microbiome interactions.  

The Vaginal Microbiome: “Healthy” Differs with Ethnicity

The Vaginal Microbiome: “Healthy” Differs with Ethnicity

What is a “normal and healthy” microbiome seems to differ among individuals and ethnic groups.  One of the goals with the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) was to characterize the healthy microbiome of different human body sites. The idea being that microbiome science needed to have a baseline of “normal and healthy” to compare to “dysbiotic and ill”. The ~200 individuals sampled for the HMP provided a surprising insight – there is no one healthy microbiome for a given site. Just as there are healthy people of a range of heights from 4’8” to 7’8”, so are there a range of healthy microbiome communities. However, the one body site thought to have a distinct microbiome across all women was the vaginal microbiome.